Pokénatural
by Dancing Mask
Summary: Two young boys dream of exploring the supernatural and the paranormal within the Hoenn region. But if regular pokemon training is already so involved, how hard must it be to hunt down mysteries with your pokemon? And what kind of secrets can pokemon hide from the world of men?
1. Under the Grey

Disclaimer: Pokemon belongs to Nintendo and Game Freak, as does any of the characters from Ruby/Sapphire here. Any and all of the OC's here are mine, etc, standard disclaimery stuff.

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Prologue: Under the Grey

A_s I sit down to write my memoirs, it strikes me how powerfully the events of my childhood shaped the course of my life, so much so that any narrative or biography of mine would be remiss not to include it. I remain undecided if I write my life's work down for scientific reasons or sentimental, or simply as something to pass the time and give my final years a sense of accomplishment. Regardless, I hesitate to mention my childhood in too much detail. A closed wound remains a wound… Perhaps it is best to simply record events as they happened, and leave it for the reader to bother scrutinizing them- and my actions- as they will._

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I was but a boy of nine when I got my first pokemon. I remember being small for my age, face always covered in dirt from running in the ash fields all day long. Fallarbor town is a small farming village, with no formal school, so I used to spend entire days out playing in those fields. Running through the ash can be dangerous, especially where the ash is thick enough to obscure falls or small ledges, not to mention rocks (and on one memorable occasion, a sleeping pokemon). So naturally I ran through it all the time. If I was quick enough all the ash I had passed through would fly back into the air, so when I turned back a great stream of it would be slowly drifting around me, like being inside a snow-globe. It was while playing this game I lost track of where I was and fell down the mountainside, causing a mini avalanche of pebbles and rocks which trapped a poor pokemon.

As far as small beginnings go, mine was small indeed.

I remember looking around as I picked myself up, groaning and bruised but otherwise alive. I'd fallen into the edge of the Jagged Pass. Great. I noticed a grey pokemon with some kind of spring for legs, making whimpering noises from under the rocks.

"Sp-spoink," it sighed. Then it closed its eyes.

"I've killed a pokemon! Oh man." A spoink keeps its heart beat going by jumping up and down- if it stops moving, it will die. Knowing this fact made my own heart beat like a jackhammer. I started running in small circles, panicking. I'd killed a pokemon! I'd never be allowed outside ever again. What if it had a family, or-

"Spoy oink!" insisted the small psychic type, stopping me in my tracks.

"Oh, you're alive!" I quickly ran over and cleared some of the rocks, helping the little pig to its feet (well, springs).

"Spoink!" It was hard to tell, but I think it was annoyed at me. It was glaring, at least. I would have asked it if it was annoyed, but my only reply would be more 'spoinks', so that seemed pointless.

"Um, sorry about that, I fell." It continued bouncing, looking to the side now. Something seemed different about this one… Aha! "Don't spoink normally have a big ol' pearl on their heads?" I asked it. It tackled me, confirming it was annoyed. Its missing pearl was somehow my fault? I wondered if this thing even knew how to smile… I _had_ nearly killed it though, so the leftover guilt convinced me to help the spoink look for its pearl. The pearl had probably been knocked off when I dropped those rocks onto the spoink anyway, I realised. It took ages to find the damn thing, leading me to suspect it had been looking well before I landed in Jagged Pass.

Which, by the way, was _hot_. The whole area was rocks, with little to no weeds or plants around, and the rocks seemed to reflect the heat right back at me. There seemed to be even more ash falling from the clouds now, which I fancied meant an eruption was coming soon. A few times I saw red slime pokemon, which bubbled fire at me lazily as I passed. They were creepy… I was glad of the spoink's presence, even if it was just following me oinking demands.

"So, is it always this hot down here?"

"Spoink."

"Huh… You know any quick way out of Jagged Pass? That ledge has gotta be twenty feet above me!" (It was half that.)

"Oink oink…"

"Not much of a talker, huh?" No response to that one. I was basically talking to myself, wandering through the rocks. If I didn't find any kind of path or steps I could always try climbing back out to the fields, though I wasn't much of a climber. To my other side it slowly got higher and higher, with ledges and sheer jumps all over the place as it got closer to Mt Chimney proper. From what I could tell Jagged Pass was sort of like a giant trench, or deep moat around the volcano, formed when it had erupted last. No idea if that was scientifically possible, but it made sense to my nine year-old brain. I tried asking the spoink if that made sense, but all I got was another tackle, this one managing to knock me over to the ground. For a little guy (or girl, or… _whatever_ spring pokemon called themselves), those sure hurt.

"Are you sure your pearl fell off when I landed on you? 'Cause we'd have seen it by now, I think…," I wondered. Judging by my Electabuzz Man wristwatch it was nearly 6, and things were going to get dark soon. The spoink still seemed insistent on finding its pearl, ignorant to my woes. Did it need it to use psychic attacks, or something? That would explain why it hadn't used any on me, and why we'd run away from all the wild pokemon that looked at us. I shivered. I wouldn't want to be lost down here at night without any attacks either. So I decided to help the little thing continue looking, if only because I hadn't found a way out yet and was kinda scared about going home alone by now. Crossing the ashes at night was eerie. It was a good thing I stayed with the spoink then, for if I hadn't I probably would have died that night. But more on that later.

By sundown we had both slowed down, and were zigzagging around the various rocks and ledges without really looking. I was tired and hungry. For some reason I was convinced the spoink's pearl would shine dramatically when we found it, and then send us home. I'd also shivered more, this time from the cold. If the rocks had bounced the heat back at me earlier, they hadn't absorbed any of that heat, and it was starting to get freezing down here. I tried hugging the spoink for warmth since it seemed perfectly warm, but it squirmed and never stopped bouncing, knocking me over.

"Why can't you be one of those cute pokemon that sits on people's heads and stays still?" I complained. It seemed to cheer up at my misery. The rocky landscape had started to look alien in the dark, but I was doing my best to look brave in front of the pig pokemon. Not to help it stay calm or anything; I just didn't want to look like a wimp in front of something smaller than me. Had to stay brave, at least until I got home. My parents yelling at me was probably scarier than anything this place had to offer. Funnily enough, that thought cheered me up.

"Spoink! Spoy-spoy!" squeaked the little dude, immediately rushing ahead. For there, perched on a ledge as if it were a pedestal, was a gleaming orb. It was actually giving off a faint white light! I followed the spoink quickly, stumbling over rocks, the pearl seeming to retreat into the distance. I quickly realised why- it actually _was_ moving away from us. On the back of a slugma, to be exact.

"Sluuuhhh," drooled the red slime pokemon. It looked rather proud of itself.

"Spoink oink!" insisted the little pig pokemon, having finally caught up to its prized pearl. It tried to knock the pearl off and reclaim its headwear, but had to bounce away to avoid an ember of flames. The slugma reared up, the pearl staying stuck on its back thanks to the bottom half being embedded in back-slime.

"Sluh-huh!" It sounded giddy. Was it… trying to evolve? I knew Magcargo had a boulder on their backs, but this seemed kind of lame… It reminded me of the time I'd drawn a moustache and beard on with a marker to seem manlier.

"Oink oink oink!" The spoink snapped me out of my amusement, desperately trying to get his pearl back. The slugma spat lava at us again, keeping us at bay while it crawled further towards the volcano.

"You're not getting away, not after how long we've been looking!" I was pretty annoyed right now. Without thinking I grabbed a rock and threw it at the slugma, the rock sinking through its side. Did I hurt it?

"Slug slug, maaaah!" it cried. Well, at least I pissed it off. I looked around desperately for a weapon, resorting to a small stick. The spoink tackled the slugma from behind over and over again, but it didn't seem to do anything. The slugma roared, a lava plume attack surrounding it completely as it lit up the night, heading towards us. The spoink cried out in fear for its pearl, and actually started hopping towards it again.

"Are you crazy!?" I pulled the little dude away, keeping a tight grip on the psychic type as it struggled. "A stupid ball isn't worth burning yourself!" That seemed to quiet it down a little, but the slugma was still approaching us, a living wall of fire.

Just when things looked really bad the pearl began to glow dazzlingly bright through the flames. Was it some kind of psychic attack? Was the pearl linked with its owner's distress? These are the questions that flashed through my mind, but as with much of life, I was wrong and way too optimistic. The slugma stopped shooting flames, a stupid expression on its face. Then, without warning, it slumped over dead, little pieces of its body oozing away between cracks in the rocks.

"Huh…?" I didn't believe my eyes at first. The spoink didn't seem to understand either, suddenly cowering behind my feet. I didn't remember letting him go. Maybe the slugma was simply exhausted from using all that fire, and was asleep. Yeah, that had to be it! Well, that's what I told myself as I looked away from its eyes. Those eyes… Even an asleep slugma probably wouldn't let their eyes slide around like that. The sudden darkness and quiet had left us both afraid, but that little-boy urge to look tough in front of others won out, compelling me to act.

"Well, um, there it is. Your pearl, I mean. Are you... gonna grab it?" We slowly shuffled our way towards the pearl, the spoink still trying to hug my leg as it bounced. The pearl was still bright white, but as blinding as it was to look at it didn't light up the area. Strange… It reminded me of the glow when a pokemon evolved. The spoink was about to pick up the pearl as I realized that, so my shout came at the same time as it touched the thing. I'm not sure why I shouted, all I knew was I was suddenly terrified of that thing. Looking back, I wish I had called out just a moment sooner.

The moment the spoink touched the pearl it split open. As I found out later, it wasn't uncommon for spoink to pick up pokemon eggs, mistaking them for the stones that amplified their power. The egg- for that's what it was- crumbled away, revealing a shining long dark snake pokemon. The spoink and I backed away instinctively as it turned a wicked eye towards us. For a baby pokemon, it was _huge_. It must have been curled up tight inside that shell; if it stood up lengthways it would easily be as tall as I was.

"Seviper," it hissed, uncoiling with strange, stiff movements. I stopped backing away as I got a good look at it, curious. Normal seviper were black with yellow and purple markings all over them, clear natural signs of 'poisonous pokemon here, please do not eat'. This one had red and pale, sickly green markings all over it, and its visible tooth was blue. Plus it was still sparkling like its egg had as it moved… Was this a shiny pokemon? I didn't have any more time to wonder at the rarity of the differently-coloured pokemon, as the spoink tackled me out of the way of an attack. Good thing it had as well, or the seviper would have bitten right through my leg.

It hissed menacingly, taking one more look at us as the spoink cried out in protest, this time his turn to guard me. Then, without warning it sank into the background, leaving us alone. I mean that literally as well, though my parents insisted it was the overactive imagination of a little boy, his eyes playing tricks on him. I swear to this day the shiny seviper disappeared in a gust of wind; its form just faded away like smoke. Either way it was probably fleeing from the lights and people nearby- straight after we stumbled into the search group out looking for me. One good thing about living in a small town- if a kid goes missing all day, they actually care enough to go looking for you. I didn't even care about looking weak in front of my family, when they found me I went straight into my mother's arms and sobbed for ages. They even let me keep the spoink, although possibly that was because I yelled at anyone through my tears when they tried to take him away. I'd gone through too much with him to leave him alone, especially since he was still missing a pearl. No way would I leave him defenseless all night with that seviper out there.

My adventure was treated as my imagination and tiredness getting the better of me, believed by no one but my friend Lin. Eventually I probably would have agreed with the adults; a disappearing shiny seviper this far north, as well as a slugma that suddenly died, were best left to the realms of fantasy. But two things prevented me from ignoring this episode. The first was that our egg-thief slugma was still dead- the next day I convinced my friend Lin to check out the area where we were found, and its body was still there. I confirmed this myself the next week, when I was finally let out of the house. It was smaller and dried out, but there all the same. So I _hadn't_ been imagining things that night.

The second thing was the more decisive evidence, however: not three days after I was found, an elderly woman was discovered dead. She lived on the outskirts of town with her son, who swore he hadn't seen or heard anything, despite being one room away when she died. None of the doors or windows had been forced, and yet she bore unmistakable signs of being victim to a pokemon attack. Specifically, a poison pokemon attack.

There was a mystery here, no doubt about it, and I felt like I was the only one looking for it. How my very first case led to my joining Team Magma, battling gym leaders for my life, and meeting legendary pokemon, is a long story. Sometimes even I don't believe it all; maybe I hit my head when I fell down that ledge and have been crazy ever since. Either way, things started to get serious when I looked into that woman's murder, and found a lot more than a wild pokemon looking back at me…

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A/N: Here's chapter 1, hope you liked it n_n I am honestly amazed that the name 'pokenatural' brings up no hits at all, I assumed there'd be a million stories before me there. It's a combination of pokemon and supernatural, if that's not clear.

Since I'm exploring the paranormal in the pokemon world I should warn there'll be a fair few original ideas in this story, but I promise it'll be focused on 'what ifs' for the pokemon world. See you all soon!


	2. Detectives and Hunters

"Neal, You can't name your spoink after another species of pokemon."

"Why not?" I asked, pretending not to understand the problem. My dad sighed as he sat on the end of my bed, going over it once more, but I wasn't listening by then. I wanted to name the spoink buddy that had gone through my mini-adventure with me 'Zangoose'. This made perfect sense to my nine-year-old mind. Zangoose were strong, cool, and were known for being rivals with seviper. If we ever saw that shiny seviper again- the one I was convinced had killed a woman just a few nights ago- then my spoink would have the edge. My dad had tried to explain it didn't work that way, but I wouldn't hear of it; my little spoink would be inspired on to victory by glorious visions of powerful zangoose ripping things apart with their claws. He then pointed out it was a little cruel naming a small pig that couldn't stop bouncing on its spring after a bad-ass pokemon like that- imagine if someone named their bidoof Charizard! I insisted it was completely different, and _he_ was the cruel one for comparing my spoink to a bidoof. "Spoink aren't that weak, they're psychic types!"

"Well, without a pearl to channel energy through, he's effectively a normal type. He can't even talk in your head like other psychics. Think of it like a battery, or wire path-" and there he went again. My dad didn't know how to explain things quickly. He kept calling the spoink 'Jerry' in his explanations, hoping the name would stick, but I turned and buried my head in my pillow.

"Fine, how about I name it 'Zane'?" He paused mid-explanation.

"You're not very good at subtlety, are you?"

"You didn't say no!" I beamed, happy with my victory. My mother gave me a funny look when I took the stairs three at a time and practically smothered the little spoink, who had been half-asleep in the kitchen. "Your name from now on is Zane, okay?"

"Spoy…?" I didn't care who told me the name didn't fit, or whether I knew its gender or not (a few minutes of struggling to lift a constantly-bouncing pokemon later, and I was fairly sure it was male, though more from Zane's responses to my questions than anything else).

Considering I was nine, my parents had planned on getting me a pokemon soon anyway, so it had been relatively easy to convince them to let me keep Zane. He was rather tame for a wild pokemon, though he tackled me when he didn't get what he wanted. I'd been promised a replacement clampearl pearl for the little guy numerous times, though they were expensive so it might take a while. Zane seemed down about that, but it was still better than him fending for himself in the wild without a pearl. When I was finally let out of the house my time was torn between showing off my new starter pokemon and trying to look into the elderly woman's murder, or at least what I suspected was a murder.

_That_ trail was colder than an abomasnow's heart. Her family seemed offended a little boy was running around asking questions, playing detective with their grandma's death. I can't really blame them, looking back. Here's what I did know: she had been killed by a poison pokemon, but official consensus was it could have been any wild pokemon run-in, or happened days previous to her passing. She was old, so it could have simply been an accident, or even something she ate. There was no manhunt or clues being followed up on, just a stern warning to have a pokemon on you at all times if you were near wild 'mon. It was frustrating, because I _knew_ that seviper was out there somewhere, and that it might attack again. I had nightmares about it, and would often wake up Zane in the middle of the night for a hug. His fur was thick and warm, even if he hit me in the face a bit as we cuddled with all the bouncing. As the days passed with nothing happening, I gradually got over my fears. I played in the ash fields west of town less, but still managed to be camping out there on the night of the next killing.

"That's not true, Zane could totally take your torkoal!"

"It's no different than a _normal_ type as it is now. Stop making me laugh!" I ground my teeth in frustration, sending Zane out to battle anyway. This was another of those battles kids get into all the time, the specifics unimportant. My pokemon's stronger than yours, your pokemon's typing sucks, I'm such a better trainer, I want to impress a girl. Not that I was trying to impress a girl. I mean, sure, Lin was there next to me, and was all blonde and wearing a skirt and doing that thing with her face, and I had noticed, but I certainly wasn't doing this to impress her. Honest.

"Zane, give it a tackle!"

"Jeffery, ember!" He named his torkoal Jeffery? That was all I processed before Zane was hit by the fire attack. Luckily it didn't seem to hurt much; his turtle pokemon was small for a torkoal and probably young. Zane managed to avoid most of his later embers, bouncing circles around the fire type. However, he still had the disadvantage when it came to size, and throwing his weight against Jeffery's shell wasn't doing much. Jeffery managed to send him flying with a whip of his tail, my little pig pokemon creating a plume of ash as he rolled across the ground. Yeah, I really hadn't managed to impress anybody. The match was stopped by the adults before it got out of hand, but it was still a pretty clear loss for my first pokemon battle. I resolved to train Zane up so he could fight with or without his psychic attacks, and always had other options. I wasn't sure what those other options _were_ yet, exactly, but at least I knew he had a pokemon ability now; thick fat. Once my dad explained he wasn't trying to pick on Zane and calmed me down, I found out thick fat protected him from fire and ice moves, and kept him warm at night. So that was pretty cool. Then me and Jeffery's trainer were forced to our tents early, for battling in the first place, which kinda ruined my mood. It was a stupid camping trip with all the other kids from Fallarbour- what was the point if we didn't share tents with other kids? Something could happen to Lin, and no one would be around to protect her.

Later that night, I snuck out while all the other kids were asleep. I wish I could say I was going off to train Zane by the moonlight, full of battle-hardened resolve. Heck, I wish I'd been off to visit Lin's tent. But my actual reason was far less brave- I only got up because I had to pee. It took me ten minutes to wake up Zane and convince him to go with me. On my way back I shivered in the cold, patting the little psychic type absentmindedly. The rows of tents among us looked like sleeping pokemon in the dark. Big pokemon. I was relieved the stars were out though; out here in the country they lit up a lot more. I waited a little longer for my night vision to adjust, unsure which tent was mine, hopping around in my bare feet. Just when I was pretty sure I could tell apart the tent colours and had found my own I saw it- the croagunk.

It walked on two feet like a man, but was as big as my dad. Back hunched, it shuffled slowly along the rows of tents, occasionally pausing outside one. I shrank behind my own tent, not daring to make the noise needed to open the zipper and crawl in. I couldn't say why but my heart was going faster than a pidgeot in a dive, and I was starting to shiver for reasons beyond the cold. The poison pokemon's eyes had a flat look to them, like painted glass, and its mouth was curved upward in a constant wicked leer. But its skin was what scared me the most. I had to double check when I got home, but I was pretty sure normal croagunk were deep blue, and looked sort of like a frog type on two legs, all scaly. This one, apart from being huge, had skin of a very pale, pastel blue colour. I might have been mistaken about that in the starlight, but one thing I was very sure of- _croagunk don't sparkle_.

This was another shiny pokemon.

The poison and fighting type continued to pace between the tents, back and forth, back and forth, sniffing curiously as it went. Every time it paused I froze along with it, desperately wishing Zane would stay still at a time like this. I wasn't sure what it was sniffing for, but judging by the look on its face it wasn't here for a hug. No one I knew had a shiny pokemon of any kind. They were super rare, and you were much better off selling any you found for thousands, so no one in the area had ever kept theirs. So what on earth was it doing here? I tried to ignore the little part of my brain that had made the connection: I had seen another shiny pokemon just one month ago, and had let that one get away. This was a completely different species of pokemon, one from all the way in Sinnoh- there was no way this croagunk was also wild. So it wouldn't attack anybody like the seviper had, right? Right?

The Croagunk stopped in its pacing once again, head suddenly snapping right towards me. I covered my mouth, convinced it was going to leap at me or attack. Instead it merely stared at me for what seemed like hours, but could just as easily have been seconds. I stared back, frozen in eye contact with the croagunk, trying not to blink in case I broke the spell. Then, it lifted one claw up to its mouth, making a shushing gesture.

"Crow…" it whispered. Then it turned away and continued shuffling, head towards the tents. The moment its gaze left me I lost it, tearing open my tent with what seemed like deafening noise after the silence, diving in my sleeping bag and covering my head with a pillow. I was shaking all over, trying and failing not to cry. I had no idea what had just happened, or why it had let me go, but by morning I knew one thing for sure: a boy had been killed in his tent, just metres away from my own. It looked like a poison sting attack. Which, as I found out when I got home and found my textbooks (but had really known all along in my heart), was a move croagunk start off with.

The next day was a whirlwind of adults panicking and adults reassuring us everything was okay. The combination of the two extremes was probably worse than either. Over the coming weeks I went over the events of that night in the ash fields over and over again in my head, endlessly torturing myself. The small town of Fallarbour was in an uproar, and all of our parents weren't letting us go anywhere on our own. The police had started taking things seriously, convinced both deaths were the work of the same pokemon. They were combing the countryside, going with the assumption a powerful trainer had released one of their trained pokemon back into the wild and it had gone rogue. I knew differently, but said nothing. They hadn't believed me last time, and now I was worried I'd go to jail for not stopping the croagunk when I had had the chance. Instead I'd just curled up into a ball and cried all night, like the coward I was. By Arceus' tooth, I was nearly ten! The legal age for a pokemon trainer! And when I'd seen those leering eyes in the dark, the moment I'd seen a second shiny poison pokemon, I'd _known_ what was about to happen, and I'd been so grateful it didn't come after me I'd done nothing but cower.

It was a full fortnight since the second attack that something happened that pushed the killings from my mind completely: I met the pokemon detective.

He drifted into town during sunset, staying at the hotel. He was different from the trainers and team magma grunts that made most of our traffic- dressed in a dark green cloak with a cowboy hat over his dark hair, he instantly held most of the girls attention. The boys noticed him for his obvious muscle and gallade partner, which was always outside its pokeball. Only well-trained pokemon were out like that all the time- he had to be some big shot back in Sinnoh, we decided, to have the fighting-psychic master. He claimed he was here following a case, but the police didn't seem to like talking to him. Rumours abound; was he actually a bounty hunter, here to kill the wild pokemon? Was he special ops, from an organization beyond the county police? Both answers explained why the police disliked him, and why they encouraged the children away from him. But, as if trying to contradict them, he always had time for us, answering any questions we had. Except the ones about his personal life, or what he was doing here, of course. He wouldn't even give us a name, which only added to his reputation and aura of mystery among the kids. He was the talk of the town. Yes, it was a small town, but words cannot describe how much I looked up to this man in the short two weeks he was here. He was, simply, everything I wanted to be when I was older, and the role model for much of my life.

"Have you seen the Detective today?" We always called him that. Just the Detective.

"He went up into Meteor Falls this morning, said there might be hidden caves going north."

"Aww man, I was hoping to ask him to tell me the story about the poison-pokemon ninjas again."

"No way, the one about the ancient race of jungle people who worship rock pokemon, that one's _way_ cooler."

"What'd he do?"

"He got captured by them, right, and they were gonna throw him in a volcano for their gods…"

I think deep down we knew some of the stories were fake, even all of them. But that didn't matter- his job was hunting down mysteries, he was tougher than any of the trainers in town, he acted rich, and he was kind. To say I idolized him was an understatement. I debated going to him with what I knew over and over again. He'd probably figured out exactly what killed both people already, of course. The only reason for going would be to see the disappointment in his eyes, the judging when I told him I was too scared to stop that boys death. But if I could help, even just a little, I should go to him right?

I agonized over the decision, but finally worked up the courage to tell him a full ten days into his stay in Fallarbour. I snuck out of my room, thankful for once my bedroom was upstairs. Zane retreated into his pokeball, since he couldn't climb trees well. It was late in the afternoon when the Detective finally went back to his hotel, and I was jumpier than a whismur at a metal concert.

"You got a question as well kid?" He sounded tired.

"Um, well, sir, the thing is…" I trailed off uselessly. I was finally going to do something productive and the words couldn't come out. Man, I sucked. A firm hand lifted my chin up, forcing me to look the man in the eyes. He smiled softly.

"What's your name?"

"Um, Neal, sir." He chuckled at that.

"You don't have to call me sir. I'm not really above anyone."

"Oh, right si-, um, Detective."

"Now, what is it you waited here to tell me?" He sat down on one of the deckchairs outside the hotel, gesturing for me to do the same opposite him.

Where to start? Here's what I knew: one, I had seen two shiny pokemon on the nights of a killing or just before someone was killed. Two, both pokemon knew moves that corresponded with how the people had died.

_Three, it's your fault they're dead._

Three, after much thought, I realised both pokemon had come out during the crescent moon. It wasn't nearly as dramatic as the full moon, and felt flimsy to me, but it was something.

_Four, the croagunk left you alone, and if you had just screamed or done something everyone would have been awake in time and the croagunk wouldn't have been able to kill anyone-_

And four, both pokemon had been over-sized, the croagunk seemingly six-feet tall. I couldn't be sure of that one, since I'd been nearly out of my mind with panic, but it was worth mentioning. The young man listened to me intently as I told him my whole story, from the seviper hatching to the croagunk sparing me. He didn't interrupt or say anything while I spoke, bar the occasional nod or grunt. That made me nervous. I ran a hand through my curly hair, waiting to see his response. Finally, after minutes of silence, he seemed to come to a conclusion and stood up.

"You did well, Neal. It's about time I got rid of this thing, yeah?" He smiled, and entered the hotel. He came back from his room not 5 minutes later, but I couldn't see anything different about him. I made to follow, but he stopped me.

"Woah there, this might be dangerous." He scratched at his stubble. "Make that definitely will be dangerous."

I held out my pokeball as I spoke up defiantly, finally finding my voice: "I'll be fine, I have Zane to protect me!"

"Zane?" I proudly released my spring pokemon, only for him to burst into laughter.

"Hahah, what a tough name for such a cute little guy!" He wiped a non-existent tear from his eye, grinning hard as the last of my dignity died. "Yeah, okay you can come, but you have to do whatever I tell you and stay back. Got it?" I nodded dumbly, not saying a word. I wasn't sure what had changed his mind, but wasn't going to risk changing it back. He started to walk out of town, back towards- gulp- the ash fields. I shouldn't have been surprised at that. Me and Zane followed just behind, power-walking to keep up with his longer strides. The setting sun turned the fields a brilliant gold and for once the ash had stopped falling. The sky looked strangely clear, a pale yellow speckled with darker shades as the sun set over the mountains, a purple haze in the distance. I marveled at the sight, but not for long- within two minutes I had broken my code of silence and was pestering the man again.

"So do you know what they are? Or how many there are? How come the seviper only attacked once and then disappeared? Do you think the next one will-"

"It."

"… Huh?"

"It, not them. We're hunting one shiny pokemon in the area, not a whole bunch. Don't you think someone would have noticed a pack of shinies by now?" He laughed like he was commenting on the weather, while I was still struggling to connect the dots. I stared at my feet as I walked, noticing how he barely parted the ash as he stepped, while I displaced clumps of the stuff with each stumbling step.

"So, uh, it's a shiny ditto that doesn't like people?" I noticed the look he gave me. "Uh, _really_ doesn't like people?"

"Closer, but not quite." He swung around so he was facing me, walking backwards towards the ash fields as he spoke. "I've heard of something similar that happened over in Johto to a- let's say a colleague of mine. Different shiny pokemon attacked a town every month or so for half the year, each time one attempted to take a life. All of them were fire pokemon, and each one more powerful than the last."

"What did he do about it?"

"_She_managed to kill one of them, though it was a bitch to beat, and took out one of her pokemon partners." I clasped my hands over my mouth, not sure if I was more impressed with the story or with the man swearing so casually like that (I was a rather sheltered nine year old, if you hadn't noticed by now). "They stopped showing up after that, and the one she did kill- a purple magmar- she had its head stuffed and put in her study shortly before the whole body faded away." The Detective continued when he noticed my expression at that last part. "The whole thing turned to smoke and vanished, leaving just the head since that was stuffed. Lucky she did that, really. So when the attacks stopped after that magmar was killed it lead me to suspect it was all the one beast, capable of changing into any pokemon of its element. Makes more sense than a group of vicious shiny pokemon that all attack once and disappear afterwards, taking turns. And its not like pokemon that can change form are new. Hers were fire types, yours poison."

"That's amazing! You really are a detective!"

"He laughed, though this time it was a cold laugh. "Neal, you've got it backwards. A detective would try to know what it _was_." He gestured with two fingers, his gallade teleporting by his side moments later. Before I could wonder why he had done that the answer presented itself- a shadow covered the sky above us, turning everything dark. Grey ash whirled and whipped around both of us, spinning around in small tornados as something powerful slapped its wings, descending with gale-force winds.

"Max, psycho cutter, go!" I could barely hear the detective over the wind, the beast right on top of us now. Beams of light shot out of its arms, knocking our attacker away. I gasped- it was a bat as big as a car with four wings and sharp horns- a crobat. This one sparkled as well, and sure enough, was a pale pink with green wings, completely off colourings. It had barely hit the ground before springing back up, launching itself at Max the gallade. The two met with a mighty impact, the shiny biting down on his arm blades just as he slashed across at the beast.

"See, young Neal, I don't care about finding out what this thing is at all. I'd make a lousy detective," he decided, voice calm and confident. "All I care about is how to kill it." At some point I'd ended up on the ground, not bothering to try to get back up against the wind, clutching Zane for dear life. The crobat was looping across the sky at an astonishing speed for something its size, dodging night slash attacks that rippled through the sky like waves of darkness. Max didn't let up, teleporting above the bat just as it plunged its blades down, impaling the crobat through the gut as it landed on the monster, crashing them both down to the ground with a plume of ash. The crobat shrieked at an ungodly pitch, the noise sending me deaf for a moment.

And all the while the Detective wasn't even watching the match or giving orders- his back was to the battle. He was still looking at me, smiling like always. It was going to be okay, that smile told me, and yet I was afraid.

"Wha- what are you?" I gasped. I hadn't even meant to voice the thought, but somehow he heard me over the din.

"I hunt the pokemon that can't be caught, stop the things science can't explain. An _intellectual_," he spoke the word like it were a curse, "would want to know what this thing is, and if there's more of them out there. I only care about killing it before it strikes again and keeping people safe." At this point the pink crobat behind us was shooting supersonics out at the gallade at point-blank range, whilst still impaled. How was it still alive? Max simply shook his head and channeled some kind of purple glow- a psychic move?- through his arms, sending it directly into the crobat's stomach. It started to spasm and convulse, the psychic energy rippling outside its body and tearing through its wing fibres. Then- bam! The shiny crobat _exploded_, purple smoke gushing out past us. Max slowly stood up, retrieving his hat from where the wind had blown it. The man in front of me- should I still call him Detective? He smiled good-naturedly, a hand on my arm lifting me up.

"Well, thanks for being bait kid!"

"Wait, what?"

"I had a feeling it would go after you," he shrugged, an innocent look on his face. My head was starting to spin. "It did twice before, after all. Good thing we got it before it killed any more, or else it would have been even stronger, huh?" He punched me in the shoulder lightly, probably not realizing how much it actually hurt, and started walking back to town. He'd used me as bait? And despite what he said, I had a feeling the poison whatever-it-was would never have been a threat to a guy like him. He'd only had to give his pokemon one command, and hadn't even watched half the battle!

"Wait, um!" Dozens of questions crowded my mind for priority. "What was with that speech you gave me?"

The pokemon hunter's eyebrow raised quizzically. "No idea what you're talkin' about kid. I was just explaining that I wasn't detective material, and showing you how spooky the job is. Don't ever become a hunter." His smile didn't reach his eyes. How could I _not_ want to become a hunter now! That had been the most incredible thing I'd ever seen, and he'd been so fearless about it. Could such a job really exist? It seemed too good to be true.

"But wait… aren't you worried it'll come back, or a water or electric one or something is out there?" I didn't like the way my voice cracked, but it seemed to me an obvious problem. If there were fire and poison ones, any element could be next, right?

"If I hear about another, I'll kill that one." He shrugged again.

"I… I can't believe you! You seriously don't seem fussed wondering what that thing was, if it was a new breed of pokemon or a legendary or some experiment gone horribly wrong or maybe a curse or-" he put his hand on my head.

"Woah there, easy. You can't worry about this stuff too much, your head will explode. You want answers, you become the detective and figure it out." He laughed as he said it, but the idea resonated with me just a little. As I followed the hunter back into town, I promised him I _would_ find out just what that spirit-thing was, and why it had attacked our town. I swore I'd find out if there were more, and stop them from hatching next time. He laughed at me, but never had I wanted to do something more seriously in my life.

I only saw that hunter twice more in my life, both occasions' years from now. It took me even longer to find out everything there was to know about the shiny poison phantom that had stalked Fallarbor, but I ran into plenty of other mysteries on the way to keep me busy. One thing I did know at the time: there was no way I could ever forget my adventure and just go work on the farm now. I would become the greatest pokemon detective of all time, or die trying.

* * *

Prologue- Under the Grey- End.


	3. The Years in the Red

Part One- The Years in the Red

* * *

And thus the events of my childhood ended with a bang, quite literally. In the years that followed I stopped playing in the ash fields altogether. I started exploring the caves behind Meteor Falls to the west of town, home to many myths and more than a few scientists following leads of their own. I began talking to the Fossil Maniac on the outskirts of Fallarbour, fascinated by his stories of century-old pokemon that still walked the earth. The following tales are from my early years, the first mysteries that I encountered whilst still an amateur. My dream of making great discoveries in the pokemon world burned brighter than ever; alas, I became… misguided.

Dawn was coming. I breathed in the air around me, relieved to be back in the country. Around me heavy trees and haphazard ledges lined the route- route 116, that is- while the mountaintops rose up in the distance. Against the purple haze of the sky this early they were barely visible, even though I was only a day or two's march from Rusturf Tunnel. I packed up my tent and sleeping bag quietly, not wishing to disturb the silence that seemed to wrap around the area like a blanket. I wish I could say I was as at peace as the terrain- in reality, I was a buzzing like a beedril, all nerves and twitchiness. I hadn't been able to sleep at night, too excited and nervous. I kept running my hands through my hair, which was all curled and messed up (a 'jewfro' Zane called it, though I had no idea what that meant). I waited impatiently, energy drink out to help me keep awake. When it was near enough to five am I woke up my pokemon, eager to set off already.

My newest, Hunter, had no problem with being woken up early and returned to his pokeball calmly.

My second pokemon, Claire, was harder to wake up. She was a shellder my parents had given me for my eleventh birthday, which I had to admit was clever of them. After somehow losing three pearls for Zane in a year and a half, they'd figured a water-type pokemon that actually produced pearls would be the way to go. Clampearl being fresh water pokemon- and harder to keep alive- the small clam pokemon shellder was decided for me. She was very curious, but easy-going. I'd wanted to name her myself, but my parents had already figured a way around that.

"Tah-dah!" my mum had cried. "Meet Shelly the shellder!"

"Shelly?" I'd yelled, horrified.

"Kidding, her name's Claire," my dad had laughed. After hearing 'Shelly', I agreed to any other name instantly, which was of course what they had wanted.

With both of my other pokemon safely tucked away in their pokeballs, I faced the task of waking up Zane. My starter spoink did not appreciate being woken up so early in the morning, and got me with a megapunch in the gut on reflex. Rolling around on the ground wheezing, I congratulated him on how his punches were coming along.

"_Why on earth are you up so early?_" he asked telepathically, rubbing his eyes wearily.

"I couldn't sleep! Come on, we could meet a legendary pokemon today!" I tried to pass my enthusiasm over to him, but was it rejected.

"_It'll still be there in a few hours, we should be sleeping when the sun is down trainer._" It was when he called me that, 'trainer', I remembered that Zane was a pokemon. Having a psychic type that could speak telepathically, I'd gotten used to being able to talk to him whenever, as well as relying on Zane for translations with wild pokemon.

"Yeah, I _am_ the trainer here, and I say we should hurry on before we miss this chance. So that's that." I stamped my foot down for emphasis.

"_You mean you're all excited like a growlithe pup, and couldn't sleep today,_" grumbled Zane, but he relented and got off his sleeping cushion, letting me return him into his pokeball. I set off immediately, my pack feeling lighter than before as my mind was elsewhere. For today, I was almost certain to finish the case I was on: the man who claimed to have caught Raikou.

Reports had been flying out of Rustboro city, just to the west of our location. They all claimed a strangely-dressed man had caught himself the legendary thunder god of Johto, and was hanging out in the area showing off with battles. It couldn't actually be Raikou- no way could a trainer no one had heard of have him, especially since Raikou would never consent to being taken from the borders of Johto. I reviewed what I knew about Raikou, having scoured the internet (and two whole books) just recently. It was undetermined if Raikou- (along with his sibling pokemon, Entei and Suicune) were simply powerful wild beasts that had claimed the Johto region as their territory, or were actually sentient, wise ancient pokemon that were the self-appointed guardians of the land. Either way all known reports indicated they would never leave Johto borders, and had ties to it, fanciful or otherwise. So I was either going to meet an amazing trainer, someone who had forcibly controlled a legendary pokemon and taken it to Hoenn, or a very skilled con artist. Either way, it was the most promising thing I'd found in a long time- mysteries rarely advertised themselves as such.

For a while the route was silent, save for a few taillow chirping from behind the bushes as they woke. It was hard to tell there was a city only a day or two behind me; out here I felt completely alone, away from mankind. Only an hour or two later of following the path I ran into a man with a bright yellow jacket and poke-ball patterned skinny jeans.

Well, the reports did say he was strangely dressed.

"Are you the man who claims he's caught Raikou?" I asked, trying to sound casual.

"Nope," he replied, giving me a once-over with his eyes. "I'm the man who HAS caught Raikou!" My hopes shot up, before an awkward pause settled between us. I'd been expecting him to release the pokemon, and prove his claim. Apparently he'd been expecting some kind of surprise or enthusiasm from me beforehand?

"Um, can I see it?"

"Hmph. I can't just flash out my legendary pokemon for every kid who walks past! I might have places to be." He wasn't _that_ much older than me. I wasn't liking his tone. Or his arrogance.

"I just want to see if you really have caught Raikou, and if you could tell me what it was like?"

"Hmph, there's nothing in that for me." He turned as if to walk away, hips swaying awkwardly in those skinny jeans. Seriously, when you're out roughing it fashion isn't exactly a priority for most trainers. I resisted the urge to sigh, trying again.

"Well, how about a battle? That'd satisfy my curiosity, and if you really have Raikou it should be easy cash for you," I suggested, holding out Hunter's pokeball. The strange man grinned underneath his sunglasses, whipping out a great ball of his own.

"Kid, I think you have yourself a deal." I could practically hear the smile in his voice.

"Neal. The name's Neal," I corrected.

"Sure kid. Name's Wallis!" he yelled his name like it were a battle-cry, throwing the great ball dramatically to the sky. Hunter, my mightyena, was out and battle-ready before it landed, releasing what looked like a yellow tiger pokemon the size of a small car. My heart stopped when I saw the tail in the shape of a lightning bolt but pale blue. My eyebrows flew up when I saw the purple cape on its back that resembled a storm cloud. And I swore under my breath as it turned to gaze at me calmly, a dark crest with an 'x' covering most of the face.

"You really do have Raikou…"

"Haha, you doubted me kid! This is what you get I s'pose. Raikou, make it quick with a thunder fang!"

"Shoot, Hunter get out of there!" Raikou's jaws snapped where the dark-type had been just seconds ago. My mightyena was decently sized for a canine pokemon, but Raikou still had double the weight on it. I couldn't let this become a direct tussle. "Keep your distance and use sand-attack!" Hunter gave me a quick look before obeying, obscuring the battlefield with a dust cloud. Um, what else did Mightyena learn? Attacks, attacks… Raikou roared, following Wallis' commands and sending thunderbolts all across the clearing. I winced, arm up over my face for protection, and saw they'd managed a direct hit on one of Hunter's back legs. No chance of beating it with speed now, though he didn't look too hurt.

Wait, what was I doing? I'd switched into battle-mode, when I should have been focused on checking if this was the real Raikou, and asking how he captured it.

"After the match, can I ask you some questions about your Raikou?" I yelled over the tussle.

"Sure, if you manage to win!" Wallis laughed a flamboyant laugh as he spoke, Raikou tackling Hunter to the ground. Crap, needed to stay focused on the match.

"Howl and bite, go!" I yelled, changing tactic. Hunter got in close, baying as it bit down on Raikou's foreleg. The beast roared out in response, batting Hunter away with one paw. Hunter circled him for a while, a proud look in his eyes from scoring a direct attack. It should be more even now that both of them had weakened legs. Wait, was I seriously talking about an even match against Raikou? Not noticing my hesitance, Hunter darted in quick, using his smaller size to the advantage as he managed to bite the thunder pokemon several more times. Eventually Raikou roared in frustration, electricity crackling all over its body.

"Use a spark attack, make sure you can't miss!" decided Wallis, who was promptly ignored as Raikou started roaring even louder. "Hey, Raikou!" The roar reached an even lower pitch, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, sending Hunter back in his pokeball. Zane appeared out a moment later, confused.

"Hey, two pokemon's no fair!" insisted the hipster across from me.

"_Your_ Pokemon used a roar move in battle and caused this!" I argued back. "Zane, you good to fight this guy? Something seems up."

"_Shouldn't be a problem, trainer_." He sounded smug.

"…Hey, what do you know that I don't?"

"_You'll find out soon enough~_" Little shit.

Well, that was helpful. "Have you got Raikou under control over there?" I directed my question at Wallis, who was bent over and attempting to talk to his Raikou.

"Yeah, we'll still win this, even against two pokemon! Raikou's just over-confident, is all!" He didn't sound convinced of what he said, and Raikou wasn't helping matters by pushing the squealing man out of the way. Oh well, had to win that match if I wanted more info, right?

"Zane, zen headbutt!" My spoink leaped against a tree, using his spring to bounce off it horizontally with speed, shooting right at his foe. His pearl glowed as he did so, all of his psychic energy concentrated in there as he slammed into Raikou. The electric type took it, flying back in the dirt even as he let a thunderbolt loose. Zane fell back, wincing. "Attack it while he's down!" I cried, Zane following my orders with a psybeam. Psychic energy shot out of his pearl, peppering Raikou as he stood up.

"Raikou, show them your discharge attack!" Wallis was pulling at his hair, panicking now. His pokemon ignored the order, summoning a storm overhead with a rain dance move. "Oh-okay! Good thinking! Take advantage of that and use a thunder!" Raikou ignored the hipster man, roaring weakly as he tried to tackle Zane down. Zane sat down on his spring for a moment, before using the momentum to leap over Raikou, attack passing harmlessly below him. We both let out a laugh when Raikou kept going and slammed into a tree- _this _was supposed to be a legendary pokemon?

"_Raikou_, what the hell!" Wallis looked pissed now. "It's one thing to disobey me, but to run into a tree? Are you cray-cray?" Raikou turned to his trainer as he got back up again. Had his eyes just flashed yellow? He let loose a thunderbolt that flew up, aimed right at his trainer.

"Zane!" I cried out, my pig pokemon understanding and acting in a split-second. He leapt up, catching the thunderbolt that would have roasted Wallis in mid-air, sending it back with a magic coat. The attack flew off his psychic amour, stunning and actually _hurting_ Raikou. "What the…?" Normal electric pokemon like Pikachu could absorb their own lightning, how the hell was a walking legend like Raikou affected?

"Damn it George, what are you playing at?" Wallis screamed through his tears.

"Who's George?" I yelled over the rain, completely lost by now. Raikou looked at me as it got up once more, eyes glowing golden. _George is the little vermin who imitated me. _Woah. That wasn't Zane's voice speaking in my mind.

"Imitated…?" As if on cue the Raikou collapsed into a puddle, revealing itself as the transforming pokemon ditto. My mind was stuck like a ratata in a wheel, not making sense of any of this. Wallis seemed to recover from his shock at getting attacked, suddenly running towards the blob pokemon. Falling to his knees he checked on it, shaking the ditto when it didn't wake up.

"C'mon Georgie! George?" The ditto struggled back to a sitting position, and transformed back into the thunder legendary. We watched in stunned silence as Raikou- the ditto George- alternated between the forms over and over again, as if unable to hold the shape longer than a few seconds. "George, buddy, say something! C'mon!" His voice sounded desperate. I stepped forward without any real plan, just hoping to help Wallis up and figure out what was happening, but as I did George- now in Raikou form- started glowing from the eyes again.

_You dared imitate my form, my name, for your petty schemes? You have been warned of my retribution. Give me one reason I shouldn't strike you down. _Tears streamed from the man's face.

"I'm- I'm sorry! It was just a stupid get-rich-quick thing, we'll never do it again!" Eyes still glowing, the Raikou raised a paw, lightning crackling from its fur.

"Wait, don't hurt him!" I jumped between the two, Zane following me a moment later. Hands out-stretched as we stared down the beast, I wondered if that had been a smart thing to do. Sure, we'd been winning the fight, but now I think I was speaking- however indirectly- with the _actual_ Raikou. Crap, this could end quite badly. Before my hesitation showed, however, Raikou noticed me and lowered his paw, sitting down.

_Very well. I leave it to another human to pass judgment on the actions of this man. However, the shape-changer's sentence is mine to make._ That sounded… good? I lowered my head to Raikou, agreeing more from lack of any other options. Wallis realized a moment later what that meant for his ditto and started struggling. I restrained him as best I could as the Raikou in front of us dissolved, leaving behind a pink pile of goo. The ditto wasn't moving. Moments later the rain started to wash that out, not even leaving a body behind. Head down, Wallis sniffled as he scrambled on the ground. We silently watched as he managed to retrieve a tiny puddle of George, keeping it in a jar from his pack.

"Are… are you okay?" For a moment I thought he'd forgotten we were there. Wallis spun around, grabbing me roughly. His eyes were red, jaw tense. Just before I thought he was going to hit me, the man instead buried his face in my chest, sobbing.

"Ah, there there! Um…" I looked at Zane, mouthing out pleas for help.

"_Oh no, you're the trainer, I wouldn't presume to tell you how to do things," _he replied cheekily in my head. Traitor. I awkwardly comforted the man, arms flailing a little. How long was he going to hug me?

"George was my first pokemon, y'know," he sniffled.

"Oh." _Oh._ "That… sucks," I added caringly. This really wasn't my strong suit.

"We've never been great as trainers, being a ditto trainer is really difficult. Tried the whole gym badge thing," he went on. If he noticed my lame attempts to reassure him, he didn't comment on them. "Then we were on holiday in Johto, and saw Raikou in the distance. It's not like we planned on doing this!" I agreed with him, freeing myself from the garishly-dressed dude with the excuse of getting to my pack. I gave Wallis a tissue, which he used in one go, before continuing.

"It's just… when we came back and the others laughed at us for not having enough badges, or a strong team… it sucked," he whined, pausing for a moment to wipe his eyes. "And I wanted to prove to them I was a good trainer, and could do anything. And then Georgie realized just seeing Raikou was enough to change into him…" he trailed off. I nodded reassuringly.

"He didn't warn you this would happen?" I couldn't help asking. I was pretty sure Raikou had mentioned something like that.

"Oh… he did the glowy eye thing a week ago. And then Raikou speaks through him once and is all 'fear the Legend's Curse', and it sounded so fake and empty. And nothing happened after that, and he didn't even remember it, and we kept winning the battles… How was I supposed to know he could take control of Georgie like that, and actually- actually _kill_- it's all that damn Raikou's fault!" He lost it again. I waited for an uncomfortable moment as Wallis buried his face in my shirt, constantly berating himself.

"I'm so _stupid_! What was I _thinking_!"

"…You just wanted to be special. Doesn't everyone?" My voice was flat; I'd been talking more to myself. Wallis stopped crying though, looking up at my eyes.

"But I risked my partner's life! Who would do something like-"

"I'm no better, seriously."

"You're just saying that!"

"No, really." I let out a weak chuckle, looking up at the sky. The rain dance was still going strong. "…I joined Team Magma last month."

"You what?!" His mouth made a little 'oh' shape. Well, at least I'd snapped him out of his depression. "But you're just a kid!"

"I'm seventeen," I frowned. Seeing the look on his face, I hurriedly continued. "You don't know what they're like! They basically own the north, and they're always making these speeches, and it sounds so reasonable, and they give you a fully-trained pokemon just for signing up." I flailed a little, sure I was telling it out of order. This man was the first person I'd ever told about my joining the infamous gang.

"They hand out pokemon?" I missed the look in Wallis' eye, and elaborated.

"Well, y'know how all of the gangs are known for using certain pokemon? Like, every Team Rocket member had a zubat or golbat at their side? Turns out they mass-train them in camps, and pick a common species they can find. That's how I got Hunter, the mightyena. I didn't get to name him, but he seems really loyal, and I'm still not sure how strong he is." I didn't mention how nervous he made me, having a super strong pokemon that rarely ever spoke to me or showed affection suddenly thrust upon me.

"But what's in it for you, joining up with them?" Wallis changed subject quickly, still curious about my Team Magma story. I sighed. Better than him crying, I guess.

"Well… I wanted to be special. Want to, I mean." It was weird discussing this with someone, especially some dude I'd just met. "I don't think I could ever be a normal pokemon trainer and still hunt down mysteries. Everyone does the trainer route, and they start to focus only on training their team or catching a rare pokemon, then they're going after badges and following the same paths everyone does. It swallows your life up. I… I want to be different than that, remembered." I wanted to save lives like the Hunter had mine, impress people and stand out. And I wasn't naive, I knew that no one became great suddenly- you didn't go after a dragon type as your first pokemon, you started off small. Similarly, you got all of the badges before trying to fight the elite four. In the same vein, I'd known I needed to see more of the world and get stronger before I could help anyone, and Team Magma had seemed like the best option at the time. My only option at the time, really.

"Anyway, what I'm saying is, it's normal to want to be special, uh, don't beat yourself up for what happened." My insides squirmed slightly at the white lie. I mean, I knew what he'd done was wrong, and bordered on a con artist's scam for petty cash. But at the same time, he'd just lost his starter pokemon… I glanced down at Zane, and knew what Wallis needed were nice words right now. Even if it was sorta his own fault for not seeing Raikou's warning through. Man, I was so confused. I ran my hands through my hair again, not sure what to say.

Wallis finally got up, eyes red but dry. "Thanks, kid." I'd helped him? "I'm gonna head off now, but thanks for hearing me out. I'm glad you were here when shit went down."

"Uh, sure thing." I couldn't tell how much of his emotions he was holding back for my sake, but was honestly just relieved he was off of me. Wallis held out a fist, which I stared at blankly.

"Fist pound, c'mon." I tapped my knuckles against his, feeling foolish and nowhere near as cool as the characters who did that in movies. The tall man sauntered off, heading in the opposite direction of back to Rustboro, I noticed.

"Hope we meet again some day when we're both important, kid!" he yelled.

"It's not kid, it's Neal!" I yelled back, unable to stop myself. Whatever. I turned to my starter pokemon, bouncing alongside me. "Think he's gonna be okay?"

"_Perhaps. I would hate it if I lost you, trainer."_ He was being serious for once, which was a good thing, but I was pretty sure he had the comparison backwards. Ah well.

"Not too bad for our first mystery under Team Magma, eh?" I started to walk back to the city, wiping the wet hair out of my eyes. First priority, getting dry in the sunlight.

"_We lost one battle, and the whole matter would have resolved itself whether or not we were there at all. Not worth getting out of bed for_." Ouch, that hurt…

"Hey, we had indirect contact with a legendary pokemon, and have documented evidence of a curse we wouldn't have known about without it. This 'Legend's Curse'… Not too shabby considering it's not even eight in the morning!" My spoink made a face.

"_We shouldn't even be awake yet, don't remind me_!"

"Not until you admit that was pretty good for our first mystery. It's only going to get even better from here on out!" I declared, pointing at the sky.

"_A pidgey chick performs its first sand-attack, and considers itself mighty,"_ Zane pointed out all-knowingly. I kicked out at him.

"Spare me. I know 'don't mess with the legendary pokemon' isn't news to anyone, but I'm still happy I was there for that." As I said it to him, I realised I _was_ happy. There was still so much we didn't know pokemon were capable of, this just reinforced that. The name implied all legendary pokemon knew when other things tried to impersonate them, which seemed important. Raikou wasn't even a psychic type, which was the only way I could think of anyone tracking dittos like that. Maybe they had other mystical powers we weren't aware of. And next time, of course, I'd bring back proof of a mystery, and have something I could actually impress people with, and that was that.

"_Can I go back in my ball and sleep now_?"

"What, no! You're going to levitate my pack for me before it gets too heavy. Consider it training!" Zane, naturally, returned to his ball soon after, leaving me alone with my heavy pack and my thoughts. Joining Team Magma… It had hit me all over again as I spoke to Wallis. This was kinda big. I wondered what I'd have to do for them, an ominous feeling coming over me even as I finally entered the warm sunlight. Had I known then what joining Team Magma would lead to, I might have run away then and never stopped running.

* * *

A/N: Chapter three! I've subverted the usual business of showing him catching his team and we suddenly have 3 team mates for Neal to keep track of. Neal's also seven years older, and has joined Team Magma for some reason. WHAT COULD THAT REASON BE? WILL WE FIND OUT SOON? AND WILL WE GET MORE FOCUS ON HIS SUDDEN POKEMON TEAM? Read the next chapters and find out!


	4. Con Artists and Charmers

The wooden boards creaked ominously underneath my feet.

"You're sure this place is safe to stand on?" I asked, not able to keep all of the nervousness from my voice. The bearded man next to me simply laughed.

"People manage to live here for years, I don't think your scrawny girls weight's gonna be what tips it over." I scowled at him, sticking to the center of the path as I slowly started to walk out on what apparently passed as a main street in Pacifidlog Town. The town, for lack of a better word, was situated entirely on wooden rafts floating in the middle of the ocean.

My two cents: this is freaking insane. According to the travel guide I'd been handed, it was estimated Pacifidlog drifts as much as 600 metres a year, slowly making circles around the same general area of Route 132 as the tides swirled. We were right in the middle of the deepest blue I'd ever seen, the ocean stretching out to the horizon in all directions. The small houses were all made of different woods, and the ocean freely splashed and spilled over some of the pathways, small planks that served as connecting bridges. There wasn't a single car or bike in the town, all transport done on foot. For these reasons Pacifidlog was considered one of the greatest tourism sites in Hoenn, a marvel of the natural and human worlds meeting, and has ranked #4 in a list of places to visit before you die.

These reasons were also why I found it horribly terrifying.

I let out Claire, my shellder, giving her the chance to stretch. I figured she'd like it being so close to the water, and she could help me out if I fell into the ocean.

"Shell shell!" She seemed excited, by the way she was spinning around in the water.

"Oh yeah, you haven't seen the ocean in a long time, huh?" I tickled the underside of her shell, remembering. The last time would have been a few years ago, when my family took a trip to Lilycove. I only had Zane and Claire back then, and had spent most of the time playing on the beach. Thinking about my parents made my mood turn dark again. "Anyway, stay close by, okay!"

"Der!" Claire called out, as she rapidly swam away excitedly chasing a corsola, completely ignoring my request.

I continued along the path, walking maybe just a little slower than I would have been on solid land. I asked for directions to my next case at the pokemon centre, paranoid they'd find out I wasn't a real trainer and arrest me the entire time. I had a trainer ID, sure, but what if they found out I was with Team Magma somehow? Granted, I hadn't done anything worth going to jail yet. In my three or so weeks with the gang things had actually been… a little boring.

Deliver this package, go with this group to mass capture more pokemon for the team. One battle with some Team Aqua members, which had been kind of cool even though I didn't understand why we were fighting, and had acted mostly as support since we outnumbered them three to one at the time. My own feelings on the subject puzzled me. When I'd nervously joined the recruitment rally I'd been realistic; I hadn't _actually_ been expecting to be sent out straight away to assassinate foreign dignities and blow up buildings, which would lead to complex moral decisions I had to agonize over which resulted in me ditching the team at the last minute to save a bus full of small children, preferably on live TV in front of some hot girls... except I totally _had_ been hoping for that. Expectations were a dangerous and sucky thing.

After my uneventful trip to the pokemon centre I was told to head for a small building painted all in pastel colours. Naturally, it was at the edge of town, and I had plenty of time to think on my way there.

"Shel shellder?" Claire had decided to come back, and turned her head (well, her whole body) in a quizzical look at me.

"I haven't told you why we're here, have I?" The purple clam pokemon bounced out of the water, agreeing as she splashed me. Well, I think she was agreeing; I sometimes had trouble reading my pokemon's expressions without Zane acting as psychic translator. Something to work on later. "Apparently there's a lady here with a pokemon that knows every single pokemon move," I announced dramatically.

"… ellder?" Claire looked lost. I tugged on her tongue, grabbing her attention.

"Hey, as in one pokemon that knows all fire moves, as well as electric moves, and water ones-"

"Shellder! Shell shell!" At the mention of water moves she sounded impressed and started reacting, swimming in frantic circles.

"Uhh, yeah. Which is why it sounds pretty cool! I mean, it could be another dead-end, but I'm not exactly rich with mysteries to pick from, and who knows-" At some point Claire had stopped listening again, and was now looping around me. Swimming backwards she would go under the wooden pathway I was on, then reappear on the surface on the other side, before leaping over me with a splash and starting all over again. "You're getting me wet, y'know!" She only giggled and continued, making me question my worth as a trainer. Fortunately, her attention span saved me from embarrassing myself in public, Claire darting off the moment she saw some seaweed drift below. Reaching my destination, I knocked on the door of the house. It was more of a hut from the outside, really.

The wait that followed was painful. I had based my whole trip out here on a small article in a couple newspapers, which really wasn't a lot to go on. Despite my best efforts (hours on the internet looking for paranormal things worth investigating), it turned out mysteries really didn't just advertise themselves as such. What if this turned out to be another bogus case? I managed to work myself up as I went over what I knew. One: there was some kind of eco-fight going on in town, and this woman was here to help. Two: she had a pokemon that claimed to know every technique ever known, of all seventeen elements. That was pretty cool, and couldn't be natural. It wasn't a smeargle or anything either, it was some Kanto pokemon, so it just had to be a special case. As I racked my brain trying to remember what it was, the door was opened by a pink plush toy of a pokemon with a colourful scarf around its head.

"Clefable, fable!" It- she?- beckoned for me to follow, so I did. I was lead into an airy kitchen with a round table, at which a woman in her forties was sitting.

"Hello there, can I help you?" She barely looked up from her book as she greeted me.

"My name's Neal, I was ah, wondering if I could ask you some questions about your pokemon?" I hadn't expected her to look like such a… non-trainer. She was a little cold looking, but professionally-dressed; she could be an accountant or someone in real estate. If you looked closely you could see small streaks of white beginning to invade her hair.

"Ah, are you from the paper? Here for an interview already, I see." Her whole demeanor changed, rising to greet me warmly, forcing me into a chair as she got out glasses. "Is juice okay?"

"Uh, yes please." Well, I hadn't lied on purpose, I just wasn't correcting her on the newspaper thing… whatever got her to talk about that clefable, I guess. "Is it true you have a pokemon that knows every known move?"

"It certainly is. My name's Miranda Edgecombe, by the way, with an 'e' at the end," she replied, giving me my drink as she settled back across from me. I leaned forward unconsciously, eager for info on her pokemon. "Have you heard of a move called metronome?" My hopes sank faster than a golem in the ocean. It must have been visible on my face, since she laughed. "No no, I can see what you're thinking. But rest assured, my little Mimi," she patted her clefable absentmindedly as she talked, "can do much more than a regular metronome. I can proudly say she's mastered the move to a degree no other pokemon has. Shall I show you?"

"Yes please! It's not that I don't believe you, but well"-

"That's quite all right. A visual demonstration makes for much more exciting news than just listening to little old me talk about her, yes? Release your pokemon if you'd like, and follow me." She got up, leading her pink puffball by the hand like a child. Claire was still out swimming somewhere, so I only released Zane as we walked. Miranda burst into laughter at the sight of him.

"Oh my! It's a little tepig on a spring! Where _do_ you Hoenn people find these things?"

"Hey, that's Zane, my spoink!" I stepped forward protectively, offended. I mean sure, spoink weren't exactly 'cool' pokemon… or strong-looking… or known for much… but still, that was just rude!

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have let my expressions show like that," she said, reserved mask back on. That wasn't exactly why I was offended, but it was close enough to an apology. I chewed on the ice cubes in my drink to avoid saying anything back. "This is a spoink, right?"

"_I certainly am_," Zane answered, voice neutral.

"Oh! A psychic type, of course. Is it true your heart stops beating when you stop bouncing up and down like that?" It was all I could do not to roll my eyes. She leaned forward, inspecting my pokemon.

"That's an urban myth, actually, Mythbusters covered it once," I told her, used to this. "Zane can last a few hours sitting still without any long-term side effects, his heart rate only slows down when he's still. He still needs to bounce, but a spoink sat still for five hours on the show and was healthy, if really weak afterwards. Most foreign pokedexes still get that wrong." I left out the embarrassing part where Zane and I hadn't known any of that either, until we'd seen the show ourselves.

"I see!" Miranda continued making a fuss over Zane, giving me the impression she hadn't seen many Hoenn pokemon. I was right- she'd stayed in the Unova and Kanto regions her whole life, and was currently only renting this house as she stayed to deal with some kind of corsola migration problem. How did we get stuck talking about my pokemon and her life story? It took a while until I managed to swing the conversation back to her clefable- man that woman could talk. But finally we made it to her 'backyard'- this being Pacifidlog town it was a large wooden balcony overlooking the ocean.

Mimi walked ahead of us, lifted a finger to the sky, waggled it and shot out a brilliant beam of ice. While doing the move she lifted her other paw, a thin jet of flames meeting it in the sky. The two met with a boom, before she broke apart the smoke with a razor leaf attack. Then a thunderbolt, then a dark pulse of some kind, before she shot rocks out of nowhere, the gigantic boulders landing into the water like cannon balls. Each time Miranda announced the attack beforehand, Mimi following without hesitation.

"How'd you do it?" I asked, amazed. Normal metronomes selected an attack at random, with the pokemon powerless to decide what attack shot out. This was different.

"That's simple: through years of training me and Mimi have unlocked the secret to the move metronome. Have any requests for her?" I chose a few moves at random, but after a psychic and leaf blade I already believed what she was saying. The pink puffball was calm, and didn't even seem taxed by all the different moves.

"So is this something any pokemon could learn to do, one day?" I queried, totally not thinking of getting a pokemon with metronome for myself.

"I highly doubt it," she laughed. "Mimi here has been my only pokemon for years, and was already gifted when I got her. It's not something that could be achieved in a few months." Damn. Mimi and Zane had a mock battle, but Mimi used bug and dark moves for the advantage, like I'd expected, so I called it off rather soon. I tried pressing Miranda further but she refused to give me specific details on how they'd managed such a feat, simply inviting me to watch her display tomorrow at some protest in town if I wanted to see more of her pokemon. I wasn't going to give up yet, but agreed to leave then for fear of getting on her bad side.

That night in the pokemon centre I couldn't sleep, thinking. I had a real mystery here, someone who had figured out one of the secrets of the pokemon world, but I had no clue _how_ they'd managed it. I tried searching the internet for Miranda and her puffball, but found nothing. Fortunately I'd managed to get a room to myself, the town hardly a large city, so my two pokemon bar Hunter had room to sleep out of their pokeballs and were relaxing.

"Any ideas on what makes her clefable special?" I asked Zane, both of us lying on my bed in the dark.

"_Only one thing stood out, but I don't think it is anything_," he admitted.

"Well let's hear it anyway."

"_She is too calm… she reminds me of the dark one_." I flopped my face into my pillow.

"Please don't remind me about Hunter... What are we gonna do about him guys?" When I'd signed up for Team Magma I'd been given him, to make sure my team met their standards.

"_I do not like him_," Zane replied bluntly.

"Shell shell!" Claire looked up from the couch she was investigating, nodding enthusiastically.

"_You_ just don't like him because he's a dark pokemon," I pointed accusingly at Zane.

"_There is more to it that that!" _Helooked up at me with indignation._ "He refuses to talk about himself or participate in anything other than battles. He is an ill-fit for our family. He is also named after the ghost pokemon haunter, hardly a good omen_." I gave Zane a look. Wait, what was that last part? I was pretty sure he was just named Hunter because it sounded tough to the magma grunts who raised him, it being similar to 'haunter' was just a coincidence.

"Uhh, Zane? You know not all pokemon are named after other species of pokemon, right?"

"_But many are, such as myself_." Shit, he wasn't joking. How to explain to him that nobody actually did that? I'd only named Zane after a zangoose when I was an idiot kid. That was awkward.

"No, I'm pretty sure Hunter wasn't. Uh, just out of curiosity, what do you think Claire was named after?" I gestured at my shellder, who stuck out her tongue at him.

"_It is for her future evolution as a cloyster, correct? The beginning of Clair and cloyster are the same_." He sounded proud that he'd figured that out, and for a pokemon that couldn't read I guess that was some pretty good wordplay. But no, damnit, pokemon weren't named after other pokemon, he was the exception here. But if I told Zane that it'd be tantamount to telling him his name was dumb (which really, the reasoning behind it was). I let the matter drop, rolling over on the bed.

"Anyway… it's not Hunter's fault he was raised in a pokemon training camp-thing. Most Team Magma pokemon are... I guess they were pretty strict on him. But that's no reason not to play with him or share food, got it?" I tried to sound stern, so the other two in front of me wouldn't hear the doubts in my own mind. I released Hunter after that, inviting the mightyena to sleep on my bed. He shook his head once for a no and curled up below the window instead, watching me with calm eyes.

But for all my words about making him part of the family, I still had trouble sleeping with the dark pokemon in my room that night. There was something strange about suddenly being given a pokemon so strong, especially one that never showed emotion outside of battle. What did he think about? Did he have dreams of his own, or friends from before we'd met? Every time I asked him Hunter had simply told Zane 'I know my place' and clammed up tighter than Claire ever could.

Ever since I'd had a nightmare about him attacking me in my sleep, me powerless to stop him, I'd realized I don't really trust the pooch like I do my other two pokemon. I'd have to do something about our relationship, but tonight was not that night. Man, it was too stressful and distracting right now, I should have been wide awake coming up with a plan for Miranda and her Mimi! 'Mimi'. Even her pokemon's name was self-centered- in person Miranda was all 'me me' all the time. It might have been because I was half asleep, but I remember thinking that was significant for some reason.

* * *

The next day, early in the afternoon.

"Where did all these people come from?" I cried out, surprised.

"_From their homes, most likely,"_ replied my smart-ass of a partner. I was talking about the surprisingly large crowd building up in Pacifidlog, filling the main streets right up to the waters edge. My lack of sleep last night had resulted in me sleeping in almost until noon, and barely making it in time to the main square where the protests were being held. A quick spray of deodorant and an energy drink was practically the same as a shower and healthy breakfast, right?

From what I gathered, the corsola- a pink coral pokemon that had water and rock abilities- were having issues which affected the town. I wasn't sure if Pacifidlog was built on a corsola colony, or simply alongside one, but either way their migration junk and in-fighting among families had caused leaks in some houses, and some people were in favour of getting rid of them all. Way harsh. Then again, if all the houses in my town were in danger of sinking at any moment, I'd probably be worried too. Like any good issue with no clear right or wrong side, the town had split in two and was busy yelling at each other instead of doing something about it.

At a rough guess the crowd was split between people whose jobs and lifestyles depended on Pacifidlog staying as it was with the corsola- the mayor, fisherman, tourism people from cafes and hotels- and the townspeople who put their safety first made up the rest. A few 'activists' were pumping up the crowd, encouraging people to voice their concerns, unfortunately.

"We should relocate the corsola colony east! They don't deserve to suffer!"

"Oh yeah? And who's going to pay for that?"

"They're just wild pokemon, kill a few and they'll all swim off to bother another town!"

"You can't kill pokemon because _you_ chose to live on their nest! Corsola are classed as semi-endangered in the national listings! They stay here, and _we_ should move!"

I'd heard enough. Thankfully, all the townspeople started to shut up when Miranda came forward with the mayor. He announced her suggested plan of scaring off the stronger of the corsola with her clefable Mimi, so that the colony would calm down and things would revert back to normal around here. She was mostly encouraged by the skeptical crowd, but I soon found out why no one had actually been doing anything directly against the pokemon: there was a lot of corsola under the floating town. And I mean a lot.

We watched in relative quiet as Mimi froze a patch of water and landed on it gracefully, oversized scarf blowing in the wind. Then, far enough out she could see under the planks of the town, she began launching seed bombs and leech seed attacks into the water. The grass moves made sense- with the dual advantage against both of corsolas weaknesses they were easy pickings. But within a few minutes Mimi's lone icy platform was surrounded by the pink coral pokemon, dozens of them shooting out bubblebeams and rock blasts and spikes from their backs as they tried to knock her off.

"Cor, cor!" they chanted, several of them launching a group power gem combo that Mimi barely dodged by leaping into the air with a flying-type move.

"Don't fear for my baby!" declared Miranda, tone confident. "This skirmish is nothing to her. Heal with aqua ring, girl!" The clefable obliged, the water surrounding her not only soothing her injuries but also absorbing any further water attacks from the colony. I had to admit, that was pretty smart battling. She continued to fend off the crowd for a little longer, using vine whips to separate them and ice moves to trap them under the ice when they started climbing out of the water. She was also pretty quick, dodging water attacks nimbly and leaping over rock attacks. But battling smart only did so much, and against numbers like these she needed much more raw power. I noticed even with the grass moves Mimi wasn't knocking any of them out in one hit, which was a problem. I readied Zane and Claire by my side, just in case.

"Are you sure you don't want back-up? She doesn't have to do this alone!" I called over the murmur, but Miranda just scoffed and ignored my offer. The townspeople seemed impressed, muttering to themselves as they realized her clefable really could control metronome, and more to the point was taking on a whole colony by herself. Everyone along the waterline had phones out, taking pictures and video as Mimi wowed them. The tide of corsola seemed to finally be slowing down, Mimi knocking back several with a surf as her solar beam picked them off at a distance. The battle wasn't really a safe distance away from town, but no one had been hit yet so no one seemed to mind. I'd just started believing she might be able to do this, impressed despite myself, when one of them got lucky with a rock blast and knocked off Mimi's scarf.

Then it all went to hell.

Mimi reached out for it with a panicked grab, the fabric drifting away on the water's surface.

"Fable! Fay fay!" she squeaked, starting to cry.

"Mimi, _what_ have I told you? You can battle just fine without that thing!" Miranda's tone was sharp, and a little strange. I glanced uneasily at the woman, unable to read her expression behind her large sunglasses.

"Cleffa, clefable!"

"I _don't care_, metronome and finish these _things_ off! I can get you a new one after!" Mimi looked downcast, but tried another metronome, shooting a scarlet flamethrower at one of the closest corsola. The attack was useless, the fire turning harmlessly into steam as it hit the water.

Zane cackled next to me, "_Well well, this just got interesting, didn't it_?" When the steam cleared Mimi was in serious trouble, three corsola crowding her on the ice platform. She knocked one back into the water with a double slap, but two more took its place.

"No! Mimi, only use your metronome, this display has to be _perfect_!" I was seriously starting to dislike Miranda, I decided.

"Fay fay!" Mimi squeaked, and to her obvious reluctance, she used metronome again. Some kind of ground-based move shot out from her feet, stunning the corsola but also tearing apart her icy battle stage like a knife through warm butter. "Fable!" she cried as she fell into the water amongst chunks of ice.

I turned to her trainer. "NOW can we help? She obviously can't control metronome!" I didn't wait for a response, addressing my pokemon. "Claire, okay, clam shut, head down, get in there and get out. Save her!"

"Shell shell!" She dived into the water at once as I spun to Zane.

"_Confuse rays into the water?"_ he guessed.

"Yep, buy her as much time as possible." Zane started firing ahead, confusing as many of the corsola in Claire's path as he could. But it was difficult to tell if they would be in time- the sea where Mimi had been standing moments ago was now churning from the frenzied battle under the surface. Corsola were tackling and butting her around, taking advantage now that they had the speed advantage in the water. To her credit, it looked like Mimi was still trying metronome- once all of the corsola flew back from something, another time nothing seemed to happen, and on her third attempt electricity lit up the whole section of the water they were in. Claire was fortunately still far away enough not to have been blasted with the electricity, or I would have been pissed. As it was I yelled at Miranda: "Tell her to stop doing that already!"

"I'm sorry we're not all perfect trainers like you, brat!" she snarled, suddenly losing her composure. What the hell? I wasn't the one who'd bragged and claimed I had a pokemon that had mastered every move. I could abuse her later, right now we needed to focus saving her pokemon.

"Could you just get her pokeball out? She looks hurt, we're gonna need to return her as soon as she's close enough." I checked and saw my shellder speeding our way now, a bleeding clefable holding onto her back just above the surface as water sprayed around them in their wake. The corsola were following, still enraged from the attack on their home, but were being held back for now. I noticed Zane had switched to psybeams for actual damage, the psychic blasts joined by streams of light and ice from fellow trainer's pokemon alongside me. Looking up with relief I saw two trainers release a large swampert and a pelipper to join Claire on the water's edge, fighting corsola off while we unloaded Mimi. She was breathing heavily, but wasn't missing any vital parts and was still conscious.

"We did it!" I cheered, sitting down on the wood with a thump. I left it for the other trainers to calm down the remaining aggressive corsola, the ones that insisted on still fighting. I was just too beat from all the emotion to help out, and really wished I'd eaten a proper breakfast now. Needed to get my sleeping pattern on track so I didn't keep missing a meal before stuff like this.

"Happy now?" Miranda sniffed, giving me a glare that any seviper would be proud of.

"Not really, no," I replied dryly. "I was kind of hoping you were the real deal, not a con artist who risked her pokemon's life to look important." _Another_ con artist, I resisted myself from adding.

"I _am_ the real deal! Mimi knows every move you can think of, she just- just needs a little help still." Her voice started to crack on that last part, finally sounding human. The pokemon in question had been returned, and had been whisked away by a nurse from the pokemon centre.

Calling them hadn't even crossed my mind- I'm glad I wasn't the only trainer out here. The crowd started to disperse, some rounding on the mayor and activists behind us once more, others keeping their distance from the battles or simply bored now that the show was over. After the worst of the hecklers had left her alone, I somehow found myself waiting in the pokemon centre alongside the middle-aged woman, alone in the sterile corridor as we waited to hear about Mimi. I wasn't sure how it had come to that, and wasn't sure what to say to her.

She spoke first, breaking the silence. "That scarf cost me a fortune, you know."

"What was it?" I couldn't keep the weariness from my voice.

"There's an item called a choice scarf, it boosts your pokemon's speed but limits their attacks." I vaguely recalled what she was talking about- the choice items boost a pokemon's speed or defensive or other abilities, but were better used on a pokemon with claws or fangs, since they could only do regular swipes and bite attacks while they were on. Pokemon that relied on shooting flames or electricity or other special moves in battle could only use one attack with them while wearing the item- the negatives far outweighed the positives in my mind, and it was a gimmicky way to fight.

"I know of them, yeah. But what's that got to do with Mimi?" I asked, frowning.

"I… I knit two of the scarves together, boosting its effect." That explained why it was oversized, I guess. "Then…"

"Then what? You could be in trouble for gross negligence unless you can prove you thought she could actually handle all of those corsola," I reminded her bluntly. Officer Jenny's words seemed to do the trick, and she started talking again. But honestly, I realized I didn't care much about her motives or what would happen to this woman, I just wanted to know how they'd done it. I was barely listening as she spoke, head down, about being a failed pokemon trainer in her youth. The husband that left her, the urge to be successful at something as she realized her life was already past its prime.

Finally she got to Mimi, and their discovery that she could sort of influence metronome's random attacks when she worked at it. I hadn't seen much of that today, but then she had been panicking after the scarf flew off. Miranda had combined the choice scarf's ability with electric shock training, the kind they used in labs to prompt ratata to run through mazes. It sounded cruel and barbaric and I couldn't keep the look of disgust off my face as she elaborated.

Her clefable was shocked for every metronome that wasn't exactly what she wanted, even though the point of the move was to be random and unpredictable. Eventually Mimi was able to use over a hundred moves, though she had to memorize each one individually, and it sounded like a long, painful process. And then they were going to tour Hoenn, wowing people with their powers and Miranda making a name for herself as a celebrity. This had been their first port of call.

"But… why not just catch a smeargle? They can already learn most moves, with the right training. There's no need for all of that." I couldn't get my head around what she'd done- it all seemed so pointless and convulted.

"More effort, and boring." If the look she gave me could talk, it'd be sneering 'you're such a child' right about now. "A smeargle that knows a variety of moves wouldn't make me famous, all of them are like that" she sniffed. I could have torn my hair out in frustration. She'd practically tortured her only pokemon just to get on the cover of magazines? She didn't care if Mimi was happy, and didn't even care about getting stronger like a real trainer. This was all just to make headlines and impress people. I couldn't understand her at all. I got up and left her in the waiting room mid-speech.

"Oh, and by the way, I'm not a reporter," I told her flatly on the way out. I spoke to the nurses, telling them everything she'd told me on my way out. I was so done with Pacifidlog town, I hoped I never had to set foot on its weird wooden streets again. I returned to the mainland on a ferry that afternoon, dreading my next Team Magma mission with a heavy heart. I'd reasoned it was worth being in the gang if I got to find real mysteries, to get stronger and save people, but so far all I'd found was two shams.

Sure, she _had_ been able to use every move I could think of, but at what cost? I was hardly going to tell everyone about Miranda's methods and hope they could all learn from her example. I sighed against the railing of the boat, not looking back as the town disappeared in the distance. Zane nudged my leg with his paw.

"_At least you saved the pokemon this time_." I grinned weakly at him, not really comforted but thankful anyway.

"You think there are mysteries out there? Real ones?"

"_You'll find them. It just takes time to get better at it_." Done reassuring me, Zane bounced off to find food. I hoped he was right, unconvinced. Maybe all mysteries were just scams people hadn't caught out yet.

As aimless as my life felt right then, I'd have been relieved to know the next mystery I encountered was most definitely real. What wouldn't relieve me was when it turned out to be so real it stole one of my teammate's lives away from me.

* * *

**A/N**: And chapter four is here! Poor Neal, two scams in a row. What are the odds he'll take that to heart and consider giving up on mysteries? Granted, that would make this a pretty short series if he really did give up. The next chapter's finally gonna have another proper mystery for him, but at what cost? Ooh, and we finally get another main character, look forward to it!


	5. Through the Fire and the Flames- 1

One week later.

I shivered under the covers. My fever hadn't gone down yet. It felt like it never would.

"Are you feeling any better?"

"Yeah," I lied. The dark-haired girl in front of me smiled. "Um, what was your name again?"

"Call me Kate," she replied easily, that hundred-watt smile beaming on her features. It turned on even before she spoke, giving her smile an automatic, robotic quality in my eyes. That was one of the reasons I'd never really liked therapists or psychiatrists (I forget which one she was meant to be). "Did you feel up to talking to me today?" Her voice was soft, reassuring. I hated it. She'd already come to see me for the last three days, but I'd turned her away every time insisting I wasn't up to it.

"I have to get this over with sooner or later, don't I?" I replied dryly, looking away from Kate as I spoke. Not that there was much to look at- all hospitals looked the same, bare and clean. The sunlight landed right on my bed, making me uncomfortably warm. She squeezed my hand and nodded.

"It's best to talk about these things as soon as possible. Bottling up your emotions is unhealthy for-"

"Not best for me. You're just saying Team Magma's gonna be pissed if I don't talk soon and cooperate, right?" Kate's expression froze mid-sentence, her mouth making a small 'o' shape as I swore. I felt a twinge of guilt at that, but it was already said.

"Well, yes, they hardly want you to stay here forever, they want you recovered and back out on the field!" she replied brightly, changing tactic. I sighed. They just wanted extra details on what went down on our mission, to see who had screwed up the most and to catch out anyone whose stories didn't match the others. I briefly wondered if Wilson had told them the entire truth of what had happened last week. Would they even believe us?

"You can just talk to me about yourself if you're still feeling uncomfortable talking about last week, I understand how it is. The mission can come later." For a moment, as I looked at her cheery smile, dark bangs and general bubbliness, I wondered if Kate really did care.

"Why does Team Magma even have therapists anyway?" I asked bluntly.

"Psychiatrists," she corrected brightly. Damn, close. "For missions that go badly like this one, for starters." She leaned in conspiratorially as she spoke, even though my room's door was closed. "To tell you the truth, it's to help with membership."

"People join Team Magma for the health care now?" I raised an eyebrow sceptically as she laughed. It was a nice, tinkly laugh. Ugh.

"Not quite. The Rocket gang have a high turn-over, with their grunts generally quitting within a few months. Team Magma are trying to improve on their business model, so in cases like this me or another psych is sent in to talk to you. We help you get better for more missions sooner, of course, but also mention all the ways staying with Team Magma will benefit you, making you stronger and help with your personal recovery, and encourage you to stay with them while you're emotionally open to the idea." She mentioned the gangs pseudo-brainwashing tactic quite casually.

"Should you really be telling me all this? Won't it make it harder to sell me on staying in the team?"

"Oh silly Neal, I'm telling you because I'm _not_ trying to convince you either way! To tell you the truth, I'm not comfortable convincing people they'll get better by staying in the gang when it doesn't actually suit them." Oh. She was being honest with me... unless this was some kind of reverse psychology thing. Maybe I was over-thinking this.

"Wait, being in Team Magma doesn't suit me?"

"With that baby face?"

"I'm _seventeen_," I stressed. That had to be close to her age! Kate simply laughed and pinched my cheek, annoyingly.

"Anyway, it's lunch time and I have until four booked away _just_ for you. You have to tell me something, or my superiors will get cross, okay?" She kicked off her shoes and crossed her legs under her on the bedside chair, obviously settling in. I tried not to notice how short her pencil skirt was, and focussed on the me-speaking-about-the-mission bit.

"I have to talk to you for over three hours?"

"Don't say it like it's such a bad thing, you'll hurt a girl's feelings you know!" She pouted for a moment, before laughing at my expression. "Seriously though, even if it's just about your regular life in Team Magma, I need something from today or I'm in trouble." I nodded, resigned to my fate. They'd picked a cute girl for me to talk to on purpose, the cynical part of me suspected, but either way it had worked. "How about you tell me about your week before the mission first, is that okay?"

"Right..." The week before the horrible incident.

* * *

I told Kate all about my adventure in Pacifidlog Town, and Miranda's abused clefable. She oohed and ahhed in all the right places, congratulating me on how I handled the situation. We ended up searching the internet on her phone to see if it was covered on any news sites- turns out I was mentioned in a few of them. I was 'the unnamed trainer who first released his pokemon, coming to the clefable's aid'. Not great, but not too bad either. We also found out the clefable had been taken away from her trainer and was being treated at the local pokemon centre, which was probably a good thing. She then checked what had happened to the local corsola colony, something I hadn't even thought of. After that fiasco no one was allowed to try battling or hurting them, which was good. I was more focussed on how I hadn't even thought to ask about the hundreds of corsola's fates though, that really had been the point of our battle.

"So, what did you do next? The mission meet-up point was here in Lilycove, right?" Kate prompted.

"Yeah, my boat from Pacifidlog got me here a day early, so I had a day to catch up with a friend."

"Tell me about them," Kate urged.

"Um, Lin was my best friend back in Fallarbor, she moved to Lilycove to work at the fashion shops."

"A lady friend, hm?"

"It's not like that," I rolled my eyes. Well, not yet, anyway. I'd crushed on Lin for years, and she'd grown up to be tall and blonde with amazing legs. She was easy to make laugh, and could switch from fun to serious at the drop of a hat. We'd hooked up a little at a party a few years ago, and Lin knew I liked her, but she thought 'we made better friends'. I'd only told my teammates Zane and Claire all that though, no way was I opening up to a stranger I'd met today, psychiatrist or not.

"Did you two have fun during the day?"

"Yeah, I tried KFC for the first time."

"The first time? _Seriously_?" If I'd told her my pokemon were from outer space she couldn't have been more shocked.

"I grew up in the country, okay!" I said defensively. "It stands for Kanto Fried Combusken, apparently."

"Yeah, I really love Kanto-style cuisine, those spices are amazing," Kate agreed.

"'Cuisine' might be pushing it," I joked. "It was pretty good though. Zane ate half a bucket of the stuff on his own."

"Zane's your spoink, right?" And just like that she had me talking about my starter pokemon with pride. She was good, or just used to talking to trainers. I ended up telling her about Claire's habit of licking new things, which nearly got us into trouble when she licked a promotional flag outside the KFC and ate part of the fabric by accident. Of course that led me to mentioning how we'd finally gotten some expression out of Hunter, after the way his eyes lit up at the greasy chicken. He ate even more than Zane, and nuzzled me for a moment when I told him to eat as much as he wanted. He went right back to stoic right after, but it was definite progress. My voice hardly cracked as I mentioned my team; if Kate noticed it she didn't say anything. Mostly I just talked about Zane though.

"-and he has this weird habit lately of thinking everyone's name is based on a pokemon species. He actually asked Lin if she was named after a linoone!"

"What did she have to say to that?"

"She told him no dice, but promised to check if her new boyfriend Doug was named after a diglett. Oh man, her new boyfriend cracked me up."

"Did you meet him?"

"Nah, but everything Lin told me about him was unintentionally hilarious. Like, she said the guy had a really deep and meaningful tattoo. So I joked that Doug was one of those people with a ditto tat to remind himself to always be changeable and flexible, or maybe he was a _really_ unique guy and had gotten one of Sprout Tower. Like no one's ever thought of that before. And then the next thing I know she's hitting me in the shoulder, because he really does have a Sprout Tower on his arm!" Kate burst into laughter at that.

"Oh wow, he sounds like a great guy," she said sarcastically. "Let me guess, gelled up-hair and shows off his muscles?"

"All the time, apparently," I agreed. "In the photo I saw of him and his machoke posing, you could have sworn they were related. I said that and Lin started hitting me again; turns out she calls him 'her little machoke' as a pet name, and I'd just ruined that for her as well." I'd made fun of Doug quite a lot, with hindsight. But Lin had been laughing even as she told me off, so it was okay. And really, it was hard to talk about a guy like Doug without making fun of him at the same time. It's only looking back that I realize Kate had been gently steering the conversation back to my ill-fated mission once I was relaxed.

"So, does Lin know you work as a grunt for Team Magma?"

"Ahh, no. I don't think I could tell her." The dark-haired cutie in front of me waited for a beat, unsure if I was going to go on.

"...Have you told anyone?"

"...No." I looked away from her, suddenly fascinated by the striped bed sheet. Lin was really the only close friend I still had, after recent events.

"You're not on speaking terms with your family, then? It must have been a sudden incident, recently." Wait, what the hell? I hadn't even mentioned my family, yet she knew I was thinking about them?

"How do you know that! Do- do you guys spy on me, or what?" Kate laughed innocently.

"I'm just good at deducting, honest." No kidding... If she had the aipom with the hat and a magnifying glass, I could have mistaken her for Sherlock Holmes or something. "It's a simple conclusion really, hear me out." I narrowed my eyes and glared at her. "You're a sweet kid, you obviously haven't been with Magma long or any other gangs. You still have that innocent look in your eyes."

"True, I only joined a few weeks ago." I didn't like her calling me kid though, she couldn't be more than a year or two older than me damn it.

"And a happy kid in the country doesn't just up and join a gang for the fun of it, so something must have happened to you." Also true. "So I figured it must have involved your family, otherwise you wouldn't have moved out at seventeen and joined a gang of all things. You must have been kicked out of the house, or not wanted to stay at home. Am I right so far?"

"Well, shit, you've got me all figured out huh?"

"Sorry, hazard of the trade. I tend to analyse people as I talk to them." Kate looked slightly embarrassed, and laughed nervously.

"That's okay. But uh, let's not talk about my family any more." I really didn't want to think about that right now.

"That's okay. How about instead you tell me about your mission after you left Lilycove?" she said brightly, suddenly all smiles again. Geez... did she plan this or something? Now I didn't really have a way of dodging the question, and I actually felt a little relived to be talking about that mission, the lesser of two evils. I made a mental note to be suspicious of everything she said from now on. Even if I was just being paranoid, this lady was tricky I decided, drawing up the covers so only my eyes were peeking out at her.

"Fine, you win. But I really think this could wait for our next session."

"How many man-hours do you think Team Magma's going to pour into you?"

"... touche."

Okay, deep breath.

"My mission last Friday was to help a group of four Team Magma members, myself included, to steal from an old man."

"Sounds important," she encouraged.

"You obviously weren't told about it beforehand then," I smiled weakly at my demanding new friend. "It was to pick up some berries." She blinked like a hoot-hoot in the morning sun rise.

"... Berries?"

"Yup."

"Four gang members and their pokemon, and all this fuss over... berry theft?"

"That is correct. The Berry Master on route 123 had a berry cache that we wanted, and we were to fill our van with them. He grows special fruit that can help pokemon out in battle, and Team Magma's been visiting him monthly to take our 'fair share' of his plants. This was just another routine extortion, or should have been."

"... I'm not sure I follow you Neal."

"I'm not sure I understand what happened either, if it helps." I smiled weakly again, before sucking it up and getting serious.

"I'd joined the van at the meeting place, on the edge of Lilycove...

* * *

The rain drizzled down steadily. The sky was a gunmetal grey, colouring the trees and path in darker shades. I stared blankly out of the window, watching raindrops roll down the screen and collide with each other. The one I was cheering on got stuck somehow, and lost the race down to the bottom of the window. Damn. I gazed emptily at the scenery flying past us behind the rain, trying not to dwell on my thoughts.

"Well, this is glum. Doesn't anyone ever talk these days?" I turned, noticing the boy who'd spoke for the first time. He was tall and skinny, and had big glasses. He was about my age, I guessed. The other two in our group- the man driving the van and the man next to him asleep- didn't seem likely to respond.

"What's there to talk about?" I asked.

"Whatever we want! Just because we happen to be in a gang is no reason to be such whismur." He was remarkably chipper. "This set-up feels a tad over dramatic, considering we're just collecting berries, hm?"

"I know what you mean," I chuckled as I spoke. "Riding in the back of a huge van like this, it feels like something in a bad war movie."

"That's because this was originally an army truck, this model. Team Magma has a few such vehicles," the boy told me knowledgeably. "Oh, my name's Wilson, forgive me."

"Neal." I shook his hand. "You talk differently, are you from another region?"

"Oh yes, I was raised in Johto. Well spotted!" I eyed him, taking in the red hair and white coat he had on. He kinda stood out. "So, any idea what the Berry Master is like?"

"Huh?" I didn't even know his real name... "No, I haven't heard anything."

"Hm. I was wondering why they needed four of us for a simple collection."

"That is kind of strange," I admitted.

"My best guess is in case his family try to stop us."

"Family?"

"The Berry Master was a pokemon trainer in his time, he completed the gym circuit in just two years." Pretty imressive, I had to admit. "Apparently he discovered many new types of berry when preparing his pokemon for battles. But more importantly several of his kids and grand kids have since taken on the gym circuit, and all have pokemon of their own."

"Ouch. You think they'll all be waiting for us?" I glanced out the window uneasily, as if they might all be there right now. Wilson simply laughed.

"No no, Magma's been collecting berries from him all year. Having us as extra members is most likely a simple precaution, safety in numbers and all that whatnot." It was all well and good to say that, but me and Wilson were both teenagers with three pokeballs on our belts each, obviously new recruits for Team Magma... If there was an actual battle we'd be relying on the two men in the front. I gulped, hoping they were tough. "Hey there Neal, don't fret! There's no reason to worry before we even get there."

"Dude, did you really just say 'don't fret'? What are you, 80?" I couldn't help myself, grinning. Wilson laughed back.

"There we go, you're thinking more positively already!" The van stopped just after he said that though. Peering nervously out the back window, I saw nothing but rows of green. Blinking, I realised the Berry Master lived on a small farm, surrounded by hundreds of berry plants- I was staring at countless rows of stakes, small purple and orange berries growing like gemstones hidden among the sea of green vines. Gulping, I pulled up the hood on my red Team Magma jacket and followed the others out of the car, trying to look as threatening as possible.

"Are you okay?" hissed Wilson. "You look like you need to take a leak." Never mind.

The four of us approached the front of the house in silence. The porch was painted in red and white, with two well-worn rocking chairs by the door, and yet more vines growing berries hung down from the roof making natural arches. It probably looked really nice out of the rain, on any other day. Instead I was busy counting the number of pokeballs my companions had- a full team of six on the one who had been sleeping, Baldie as I dubbed him, and another five pokemon on the driver (named Mr Hat, since he was wearing one). Otherwise they were identical, muscled, all scowls and grunts. Baldie knocked on the door impatiently. I resisted the urge to fidget as we stood there, no one making eye contact. Baldie bashed on the door with his fist, this time yelling.

"It's Team Magma, open up!" Still no response.

"Do you think he's out?" I suggested, earning a snort from Baldie and no response from Mr Hat. Baldie tried the door, to no luck, then stormed off around the back. We followed him, myself at the back of the group. I'd been busy trying to look through the windows, to see if anyone was home, but all of them had lace curtains. I could make out wooden furniture and a tea set on the table, but no people. Being back on a farm again was like being home, urgh.

Then I heard the yell. Leaving the window at a run, I rounded the house to see the rest of my group facing two men. Baldie was holding an old man roughly, his arm bent at a funny angle. The old man had slacks and a cardigan on, as well as a necklace made to look like strings of dozens of berries. The Berry Master, presumably. Next to them was a man in a black hoodie, in his early twenties I gauged.

"You let go of my father!" the boy in the hoodie was yelling as he advanced on them.

"Just hand over the berries like usual and I will," Baldie replied smoothly, a large grin on his face. He was enjoying this, I realized with a jolt. I sometimes forgot I was one of the bad guys now.

"I'll be fine," the Berry Master spoke calmly. "You take Pikachu and get away from here, son." The old man stood there, a gang member's hand around his neck, shoved into the mud of his own backyard, and was perfectly calm. I didn't like it.

"But dad-"

"Go now, son." His voice was stern, but not unkind. Slowly, we all watched as he handed the one pokeball on him to the younger man in the black hoodie. His son went to retreat into the house, but the Berry Master shook his head, and then went the opposite direction into the forest behind the berry farm.

"Should one of us keep an eye on him?" I whispered to Wilson, not sure what to make of all this.

"That's not our call, we're just following their orders," he whispered back with a nod to Baldie and Mr Hat. And so we waited until the boy retreated out of sight, disappearing in the rain. I couldn't hear anything but the gentle susurrus of droplets hitting the ground.

Mr Hat stepped towards the pair, a bored expression to match his tone. "So, where's the berries for this month's shipment? We haven't got all day."

"I don't mean to offend, but I really don't think they are your priority." The old man's voice was light, his eyes shining as if he was about to tell an amusing joke.

"And what exactly are you getting at?" Mr Hat tipped his namesake down so it was just above his eyes as he loomed over the old man, looking every bit the perfect threatening gangster.

"Well," the wizened old man adjusted slightly as he spoke, "You should be more worried about making it out of here alive." And then he back-flipped out of Baldie's grip, kicking him in the head and sending him flying.

Oh shit.

To his credit Mr Hat responded instantly, a gigantic flying lizard and a bull pokemon with wicked horns released in a heartbeat. A green dragon type with a long neck- a flygon! The flygon leapt into the air, great wings flapping heavily as Hat's other pokemon, the tauros charged the old man. The Berry Master met the bovine pokemon head on, his arm swinging as they met with a sickening crunching sound. The tauros flew to the side, eyes dazed and fur dark with what looked awfully like blood. The old man was unhurt, as if he'd just swatted aside an insect.

Oh shit shit.

"He's not moving, but he's breathing!" Wilson called out, kneeling over Baldie's unconscious body. We were down to three trainers. In the same instant Hat's flygon released a stream of blue flames. The air around the attack sizzled as the dragonbreath passed through the rain, the shimmering blast hitting the Berry Master perfectly with a great plume of steam. I sucked my breath in between my teeth as the steam cleared, revealing the white-haired man perfectly alive and unharmed. As we watched, one of the berries on what I had assumed to be his necklace shrivelled up and darkened, falling to the ground.

What exactly was going on here?

"A haban berry?" Wilson stood up from our team-mate, eyes wide behind his glasses. "But no, those only help defend against part of a dragon type-attack, this is something totally different..."

"What are you brats doing? Swarm him _now_!" Mr Hat release the rest of his team, roaring as they lunged at the lone old Berry Master.

And then all hell blew loose.

* * *

**A/N**: Cliffhanger ending! I didn't really want to do that to anyone, but the word count for this chap was ridiculous, even for this story. I originally wanted to write this like a TV show, with each chapter a mostly self-contained adventure or mystery each time. But with the way the word counts are going I'm thinking about experimenting and making every story a 2-parter for now. Let me know if you have any thoughts or criticisms so far, I'd love to hear from you guys n_n


	6. Through the Fire and the Flames- 2

The place: the back of an old farm house, wet and muddy thanks to the pouring rain.

The enemy: an old man, the Berry Master of Hoenn. Up against him, four Team Magma members, all armed with their pokemon. It wasn't much of a bet.

And yet somehow, at that moment, I'd have put everything I had on the old man. He'd knocked aside- and knocked out- a tauros, a pure AMOUNT GOES HERE of muscle with one hand. He'd also taken a direct hit of flaming dragonbreath and seemed unharmed, as well as managing to knock out Baldie- a man at least 20 years his junior. Now it was just Mr Hat, the appropriately named hat-wearing leader of our group, and me and Wilson, two kids, left to face him.

"What are you brats doing? Swarm him _now_!" Mr Hat released another three pokemon- the rest of his remaining team- to join the fray. A humanoid pokemon with a leafy hat was first, a fighting type judging by its kicking motions.

"Bre, breloom!"

Right behind it was two canine pokemon, one blue and yellow with electricity crackling over its fur and one a grey mightyena, just like my Hunter. Wilson nodded and released his own pokemon, a floating ghost type with large hands and a small insect type with large eyes.

"Haun haunt!" the ghost type laughed as it saw what our small army was facing- one old man in a yoga stance. He threw off his cardigan, which was burned from the attack, revealing a dark shirt and dozens of berries hanging off his body along string and wire. He calmly picked an orange one off and popped it into his mouth, a small smile on his face as he ate it. He stood taller, muscles suddenly more defined. What exactly was in those berries?

"Let the shadow of the gate of the underworld be kind to you as you pass," he whispered, hands raised together in a quick motion.

"You fuckin' _praying_ for us now?" Mr Hat did not like that. " You're the one who's going home in a body bag old man! Guys, treat him like a 'mon, take no chances and _rip his throat out already_!"The pokemon army swarmed him, lightning and more blue dragon breath splashing off the man harmlessly. He leaped abnormally high, flipping to land on the flygon which gave a panicked cry.

"Flii!" It turned its long neck to bite him, but the Berry Master was quicker, arms snapping its neck as they both fell to the ground with a thud. Their bodies landed among the berry plantation, hidden from our view. Hat's three remaining pokemon all charged after them, immediately swallowed up by the endless rows of plants. Wilson and his two approached behind them cautiously, the boy turning back towards me.

"C'mon, we need you!" I was still heroically rooted to the ground, having trouble breathing.

"Um, yeah, right." I automatically went to reach for Zane's pokeball, but my hand wouldn't release him. What had happened to that flygon... what was happening right now judging by the electricity and leaf storm visible above the berry plants... I put Zane's pokeball back, releasing Hunter instead. Hunter was evolved and could take a hit better, that was why I'd picked him, I told myself.

"Hunter, an old man in those plants is our enemy, everyone else is Team Magma on our side, got it?" He barked sharply, taking off for the sea of berries as I followed. The moment I entered the rows of plants I felt lost, like I'd just stepped past the curtain to another world. The rain continued to obscure my vision, and I had no idea if we were approaching the conflict or not. There was little room to squeeze by the plants, and they stretched out in every direction, branches and leafs slapping me as I tried to run through. Everything was a breathless blur as I raced forward, simply hoping not to lose sight of my mightyena. I couldn't even hear the sounds of the fighting any more, I realised with a sudden panic. All I could hear was the old man as he prayed for us in that low voice that carried oh so much better than it should have.

"May Mew grant you proper judgement and give you the rebirth you deserve. May Articuno, the first, stare at your life's woven story and loves and possessions, relinquishing you of all that you hold dear, leaving you alone in the ice that reflects what you truly are, free of impurities or desire." I only vaguely knew of Mewism, being non-religious, but his words chilled me to the bone. You didn't need to be church-going to realise what this was- he was reading us our final rights.

I stumbled, tripping over a stake that had been knocked over. It looked like it had been used to attack something, and was stained dark red. Shivering I got back up and called for Hunter, not sure where he was or which way I was going any more. And still that damned chanting continued.

"May Zapdos, the second, plunge you into darkness and allow you rest. When you dream let it not be a wasted dream of being alive, but a hopeless slumber that shows the truth and allows you to acknowledge what could have been, and what never will. May that be enough." Hunter raced out of the vines from my side, barking as he led me away. We passed the breloom, missing half its face and screaming as it thrashed through the vines. I crashed out of the plants back on the outside, bleeding from small cuts on my arms, and beheld the scene in front of me. We were back behind the farm; someone had led the battle out of the plants for more room to manoeuvre. Mr Hat's manectric shot a plume of lightning from its back, the attack striking the Berry Master with a boom of thunder. Momentarily deafened, I watched as the lightning all flew into a small purple berry on his bracelet, which absorbed the attack before shrivelling up and dropping to the ground harmlessly. Even as he moved faster than humanly possible, kicking the lightning pokemon to the ground and dodging a mud slap attack from one of Wilson's pokemon, still the Mewist chanted that religious rant I hated so much.

"May Moltres, the third, cleanse you of your sins in a fire that lasts one hundred and forty-six lifetimes, bringing your soul to a nirvana of what Should Be. Then, and only then shall you be judged, and struck down for the sins that remain. For some things," his voice rose as he back-handed a ball of pulsing dark energy fired from the haunter, sending it back at Wilson, "some things stain the soul too deep, and shall never leave!" Hunter raced towards our opponent, ignoring my cries to fall back. Lunging from behind, teeth bared to bite down on his neck, Hunter nearly had him. And then he spun, the Berry Master halting the attack with one hand which closed around his muzzle, exposing Hunter's soft white neck.

"No, not Hunter!" I shrieked, my voice not even recognisable to my own ears. Why was this happening?

"Some sins we all carry to the grave, staining us as surely blood stains flesh, wine stains water, visible to all and unforgivable." The man's voice was low. He ended his sentence as he snapped Hunter's neck calmly, killing my pokemon as its blood splashed on his face. No. The Berry Master approached me, his expression blank. No.

"Your gang takes my life's work month after month, and expects no resistance? They expect me to roll over and abandon my means of supporting a family, my hard work, that which gives me life? To give the powers I cultivated for so long, and let them be used for evil?"

"Please..." I choked on my tears, unable to say anything. It wasn't me that had taken his berries before. It wasn't my fault Team Magma were doing this to him. I was just... following orders. That's all! But the words died in my throat, sounding false before I'd even uttered them. I thrust one hand towards the man, fingers curled tightly around Zane's pokeball, but I couldn't release him. So I simply raised the pokeball between us, like a talisman I hoped would keep me safe.

I couldn't send Zane out and let the same thing happen again. It was selfish but I didn't care if my team mates lost pokemon or even the battle if it meant I didn't have to risk Zane or Claire. They were all I had. We stood there like that, me on my knees, just whispering 'please' over and over as I held Zane's pokeball out at the man, arm shaking. The old man gazed at me expressionlessly, made a small praying gesture and then swept away, leaving me alone. He wasn't going to attack Zane... my arm dropped, suddenly dizzy with relief. I looked up again, wondering what was going to happen to us. Mr Hat was kneeling over Baldie's unconscious form, their red hoodies dirty and dark in the rain and mud. All of his pokemon were dead or unable to battle. Wilson and his team were nowhere to be seen. I realised something important: we had no more pokemon to battle the old man with. Whatever he had planned was what would happen. As long as we lived and no more pokemon were lost, I was okay with that. I just wanted to run home and cut our losses right then and there.

But Mr Hat had other ideas. Whatever the Berry Master had to say was forgotten as he pulled out one of Baldie's pokeballs from his belt, sending out a bipedal blue reptile pokemon, one with massive red spikes along its back.

"Croco, croc!" It looked around in confusion, taking in the strange man with its pokeball, the old man in front of them, his unconscious trainer. Mr Hat took advantage of that confusion at once.

"The man with the berries knocked out your trainer! Go get 'im!" The blue reptile lunged at the berry master, firing off a water gun for distraction as it followed up with a vicious bite attack. The Berry Master dodged both, leaning out of the way effortlessly.

"Come now, this is getting tiresome. Just accept your loss already!" One more berry plucked from his wrist and in his mouth. Instantly golden lightning crackled and flared around the man, shooting off him in a thunderbolt attack that knocked out the water-type in one hit. "Are you done yet, or should we sacrifice more of your companion's partners first?" Mr Hat didn't like that very much, judging by his scowl. Still over Baldie's belt he quickly pulled out an ultra ball and tried once again, releasing a massive orange dragon.

"Chaaar!" it roared.

"No!" I cried, voice swallowed by the roaring. "We can't beat him!" How many more pokemon had to die? The fire on the dragon's tail suddenly blew up, much larger, and his roaring intensified. Looking down at the prone form of his trainer, and being released by another trainer- the winged lizard must have assumed its trainer was dead instead of just unconcious. Oh crap.

"CHAAAAAAAAR!"

"_No_." With a slash of its claws Mr Hat was gutted, his stomachs contents open on the mud in a heartbeat. The flaming dragon rampaged and stomped around in fury, flames pouring out of its mouth. The house and barn instantly caught alight, small tendrils of smoke billowing around us as the fire fought the constant pouring of the rain. The Berry Master was either surprised by the sudden new opponent or hadn't had time to pluck another of those berries that gave him powers, because he didn't stop the beast in time. The grief-stricken dragon bellowed as flames spun around it, the rows of plants catching on fire with a subtle 'whoosh' noise. I stumbled forward, away from the blaze behind me as hundreds of plants spread the flames, only to walk closer to the rampaging inferno of a pokemon. I sunk to the ground, only realising later that might have saved my life- with all the smoke coming off the burning farm and berry plants, the sky was already covered by toxic clouds. It felt like I was surrounded by death on all sides. The Berry Master was knocked to the ground by the beast, but managed to get back up and dodge the next heavy claw, a small green berry between his teeth.

"Zar! CHARIZARD!" growled the fire-type, coating the ground around the old man with a stream of flames. Before he'd finished eating he was hit by the next blast. The pyrotechnics burnt the ground to an instant black, the flamethrower creating a burnt crater where the old man had just been standing seconds before. I watched on with fear, wondering which one I was cheering for as the flames flickered. The lizard pokemon finally stopped after almost a minute of constant flames. As it drew in another breath I saw the old man still standing, his hair dark with soot and clothes burnt- but alive. Dozens of small berries hardened and fell off before my eyes, before not a single berry was left on his person to use as weapons.

They eyed each other for a time, the old man whose entire life was now on fire around him, defenceless against the beast, against the giant flame lizard pokemon whose trainer it thought to be dead. The terrible irony was that his dragon's grief had actually killed Mr Hat, the trainer trying to help him and his trainer. Worse, the beast had even finished off his own trainer unknowingly with the spreading flames that now covered the ground around them.

The old man bowed his head, as if saying one last prayer.

"... Perhaps we'll meet again," was all he said aloud. He turned to me for one lingering gaze, and then with a leap and a bound he sprang onto the flaming pokemon, leaping off its shoulders to the other side of the house. He fled quickly, catching me and the dragon by surprise- even without any berries left he'd eaten one only a moment ago, and it must have still been in effect. The charizard rampaged for the next hour, thankfully not noticing me down in the mud. It took to the skies, burning the berry plantation and everything nearby in its rage, but apparently was unable to find the man who had caused this. Or really, _we_ had caused this, by trying to take any of his berries. Even if it didn't excuse the carnage and slaughter, he was only defending his home. That... that meant Hunter's death was on me. That was the last straw holding back my despair.

I could have done things differently! I could have released all of my pokemon at once, and possibly changed the outcome of the battle. I could have acted quicker, instead of watching the fight like a coward and getting lost among the berry trees like an idiot. I could have reasoned with the old man, or said anything at all. But worst of all was the crushing weight of the feeling that this was right. This was what I deserved. While trying to play detective I'd felt better than Wallis and Miranda, who'd lied and done such horrible things. But I was no different than them. I had also done horrible things in order to fulfil my own selfish dreams. I'd joined Team Magma and told myself it was okay because I wasn't ever asked to kill anyone or make any tough decisions, I was just back up and a delivery boy. But no matter how indirectly I was still supporting the bad guys, and deserved as much blame and punishment as any of the members. I'd helped cause _this_.

I'd hated those two con-artists because deep down they reminded me of myself, and that realisation scared me.

I crawled away in the mud, not daring to stand up for fear the charizard would notice me and take out its fury again. Only when I was past our van did I stand up, jogging on the road trying to get as far away as possible from that madness. The idea of trying to drive the van didn't even occur to me. It was probably best I didn't though, in my state I would have crashed it in minutes. Hours later when the unrelenting rain had soaked me to the bone I finally gave up and sat down. I don't know if I would have gotten up again on my own. I crawled under a tree, more for something to lean against than shelter. It would be another day or more before I made it near Lilycove, but thankfully I didn't have to attempt that walk; the rescue team found me soon after. Wilson had hurried to the van the moment things went sour and contacted Magma HQ, apparently. Something else I hadn't thought of. His pokemon were safe, he'd been holed up in that van the whole time he realised it was hopeless.

* * *

"... And that's it." My voice had been flat as I told Kate everything about that ill-fated mission, sticking to the facts as best I could, but I think she knew how much it had affected me anyway. As I stopped talking I opened my eyes, the flaming forest replaced by the setting sun outside my hospital window bathing the white walls golden. The girl by my side squeezed my hand tightly and I stared down at her fingers. Her nails were a nice dark colour. Anything to not look her in the eye and see the pity that was there.

"So the Berry Master grows some kind of super berries, and they work on people..."

"Yeah. Not sure how he did it, but boy can he grow some good berries. Must have been what Magma were really after all along." My voice was dry after talking so much.

"That's horrible... you say Wilson made it out though, right? It's not all bad news!" I made to smile at her comment, for Kate's sake, but it came out as more of a facial twitch. I hadn't had reason to smile much this week.

"Yeah, he's been in to see me a few times already. I don't think he lost any pokemon." I couldn't hide the bitterness in my voice that time either. "The Berry Master and his son haven't been found yet. They'd only just started searching the forest near the farm when the authorities showed up, drawn by the smoke. So Team Magma had to leave pretty quick."

"Any idea on the rest of his family?" I shook my head.

"The house was empty of bodies. He must have sent them away as a precaution, that's why he didn't send his son inside either." Kate breathed a sigh of relief at my words.

"So not everyone died, it's not as bad as it could have been!"

"Yeah." Hip-fucking-hooray for silver linings.

"It's not your fault, you know. You were just back-up on a mission that went badly. No one could have predicted what would happen, that the charizard would go nuts or that the old man could do any of that. It was just bad luck." I nodded, unconvinced. I wasn't sure what else there was to say. I'd relived the whole thing for her, but I don't see how it changed anything. They already knew the basics of that day from Wilson.

"-Team Magma?" I blinked.

"Huh, sorry?" Kate smiled sweetly, but it was too automatic again for me to trust that smile.

"I asked, do you think you're going to stay in Team Magma?" I thought briefly about everything that had happened so far. About the parts of the story I hadn't mentioned, my fears and realisations about myself. Then I looked at the bedside where my three pokeballs lay empty and dormant, even my pokemon taken away from me while I was feverish in case I tried to do something desperate in the hospital. Would I stay with Team Magma?

I smiled back at Kate, as widely as possible. "Yes, I think I will stay. I have some things I need to take care of."

* * *

A/N: Ooh noo, has Neal learnt nothing from this adventure? Or has he decided something in that hospital that he's not telling us? (Hint: it's the later) As always, comments and criticisms are appreciated, thanks a ton for reading y'all.


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